Finding better ways for bus networks across Northern Virginia to better collaborate seems to be a priority for local representatives on the DMV Moves task force.
However, the possibility of consolidating the disparate systems into one appeared to be a non-starter, especially for Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.
“I have a massive transit operation,” he said, referring to the county’s Fairfax Connector service at a task force meeting on March 24. “People who run big bus systems need the autonomy. The bureaucracy pieces [of a consolidated system] get very complicated.”
Charged with identifying long-term, sustainable options for funding Metro and other transit services in the D.C. region, the DMV Moves initiative was launched last year by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
At meetings held late last year, the body looked at the possibility of further collaboration among bus systems to find economic savings. Consolidation was one possibility that had been discussed.
At the March 24 meeting, Sen. Scott Surovell (D-34) wondered where the followup was to that earlier conversation, lamenting that he didn’t feel his input at the task force’s previous gathering in December “was very listened to.”
“We talked a lot about trying to consolidate bus systems and trying to find efficiencies. I haven’t seen a single mention of that,” Surovell said. “One of the most obvious ways to find efficiencies is to consolidate bus systems.”
In addition to Fairfax Connector, local governments in Northern Virginia oversee a number of local bus systems run by contractors, including Arlington Transit, DASH in Alexandria and Fairfax City’s CUE.
The bus lines typically were created to give localities more autonomy over routing within their jurisdictions and reduce costs compared to Metrobus service. Each has evolved distinctly, according to McKay.
“Every jurisdiction has a very different-sized bus operation,” he said.
COG Executive Director Clark Mercer said that while operators of local bus systems would be asked to work together and find efficiencies, his organization wouldn’t have agreed to sponsor the DMV Moves effort if it resulted in WMATA taking over local systems and fold them into Metrobus operations.
“That is not a goal,” Mercer said. “This has not been an end-around.”
Despite his antipathy to the merger concept, “that does not mean we can’t do things with efficiencies” — as long as they “do not equal takeover.”
Taking approximately the same viewpoint was Matt de Ferranti, who represents the Arlington County Board on DMV Moves and was the 2024 chair of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.
“I do not think consolidation makes sense or is COG’s goal, but I do believe strategic efficiencies should be thoughtfully considered over the coming years,” he told FFXnow.
Ceding decision-making to a regional operating entity would be counterproductive, de Ferranti suggested.
“Arlington’s buses must be reliable,” he said. “We are in a new facility that is a big step forward as we continue to improve service.”
The discussion came as the DMV Moves task force inches closer to final recommendations for a long-term plan for the region’s mass transit operations and ways to pay for it. The body’s next meeting is set for May 16.
