DART First State Vehicle List

An up-to-date list of all vehicles in use by DART First State services

I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request on January 5th, 2024 to the Delaware Transit Corporation, a division of the Delaware Department of Transportation, operating as DART First State bus services. My request was for the following information:

A list of vehicles currently in active use by DART First State/Delaware Transit Corporation to operate fixed-route, paratransit, and Connect (microtransit) services, including:

• Vehicle number

• License plate number (if available)

• Build date

• Manufacturer

• Model

• Engine

• Transmission

• Operating garage (e.g. Wrangle Hill, Beech St., etc.)

Today, I got my list. Since this is public information anyway, it’s only right that I also share it. There are many circulating DART vehicle lists out there, but each has its own problems; some are out of date, and all of them only list the buses used on fixed-route services. This list is guaranteed to be up-to-date as of January 23rd, 2024, the date that I received this list.

You can find the list in its entirety by clicking the button below:

Within this, you can find a few different sheets:

• All Vehicles: Does what it says it does. This is the raw sheet that was given to me by the DTC representative.

• Standard + Coach (Gillig, Proterra, MCI): In this sheet, I have only included the vehicles that are used for standard, fixed-route service. I have split them into color-coded sections based on their major numbering systems. Do note that this sheet does not include vehicles 1776 and 1777, which are used on the routes 61 and 62, respectively.

  • 125-126: 2006 30ft Gilligs - I’ve never seen these actually in service, neither monitoring Catenary or in-person, so I suspect these are backups or for parts in case all else fails.

  • 151, 153-157, 168: 2012 40ft Hybrid-Electric Gilligs - the oldest among the fleet still in regular revenue service

  • 283-284, 286: 2009 30ft Gilligs

  • 301-322 (except 311): 2010 30ft Gilligs

  • 401-474 (except 439, 441): 2014 40ft Gilligs (473 and 474 are 2015 models)

  • 501-522 (except 519): 2020 40ft Gilligs

  • 601-626: 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020 30ft Gilligs

  • 707-732: Myriad of Gillig and Proterra battery-electric buses from 2019-2023

  • 914-923: 2012 and 2017 45ft MCI coaches

  • 21001-21021: 2021 40ft Gilligs - the first use of the new numbering system using year prefixes

  • 22001-22014: 2022 30ft Gilligs

  • 22015-22030: 2022 40ft Gilligs

  • 23901-23904: 2023 40ft Gilligs (suburban configuration, no rear door - all of DART’s other Gilligs have driver-operated rear doors)

• Cutaways (Ford): All of the Ford E450s you could ever want. These are primarily used for Paratransit services, but a couple are highlighted with a green tint:

  • 1775-1776: Used for routes 61 and 62, both of which are contracted out to Transdev

  • 19001-19005: Used for DART Connect in Georgetown and Millsboro

• Transit Vans (Ford): Used primarily for DART Connect in Newark. There are also a couple based out of Georgetown - likely for DART Connect Georgetown/Millsboro - but I’m not sure about the two in the Beech Street lot.

• Electric (Gillig, Proterra) + Hybrid (Gillig): Specifically all of the low-emissions vehicles DART has. They have largely been slow to adopt them, though they tend to get a good amount of usage during the summer. In the winter, they get little use except down by Rehoboth. Out of the 538 vehicles in the list they sent me, only 33 of them (or 6.13%) were electric or hybrid. Yikes! I hope DART accelerates purchase of more electric buses, or maybe even some of that fancy new hydrogen fuel cell stuff, but with Proterra recently going under, widespread electric fleet adoption doesn’t seem awfully likely.

• Vehicles over 10yrs old: One main thing I noticed going through the data was how new many of the vehicles are. Of the 538 total vehicles, only 39 (or 7.25%) were older than 10 years old. Props to DART for keeping their stuff up-to-date!

I hope you find this information useful. I may also add any pictures I have to the spreadsheet at a later date, but I wanted to make sure I got the information published the day I got it. I’m not sure if Delaware’s FOIA request system requires you to be a Delaware resident, so if there’s other information you want to see about DART, feel free to let me know.