Local bus networks serving both Fairfax County and Fairfax City posted year-over-year passenger declines in fiscal year 2026, even as transit usage increased more broadly across Northern Virginia.
Fairfax Connector saw a drop of 1.1% and Fairfax City’s CUE service was down 4.5%, according to data from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation as analyzed by FFXnow.
One cause for the decline was the seven-week shutdown of the federal government that extended from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025.
More outreach could be necessary to ensure all members of the public know about their transit options, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said at the Sept. 3 meeting of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC).
“We have a very robust system,” but not everyone may be aware, Palchik said.
While Fairfax Connector and CUE saw ridership decline in FY 2026, which spanned July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, the region’s other local bus networks — Arlington Transit, Alexandria’s DASH and Loudoun County Transit — posted increases.
All told, the five systems carried more than 21.15 million passengers during the year, up a cumulative 6.57% from a year before.
“This is a great sign, showing the health of our system,” Sophie Spiliotopoulos, manager of NVTC’s data visualization program, said.
When adding in Metro and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) service, Northern Virginia was almost, but not quite, back to pre-pandemic levels of mass transit use, which totaled about 130 million riders in fiscal year 2019.
“The bottom line is, transit ridership continues to grow,” said Sarah Bagley, the vice mayor of Alexandria and NVTC’s board chair. “It’s very exciting.”
Metrorail remains the dominant mass transit system across Northern Virginia, with about 1.5 million riders weekly, according to state data. Metrobus and the local bus systems combined for an average of about 1.08 million riders weekly, with VRE adding about 41,600.
Among individual systems, DPRT’s online database shows:
- Arlington Transit: Ridership of 2,669,853 was up 1.1% from FY 2025
- CUE: Ridership of 906,072 was down 4.5%
- DASH: Ridership of 6,960,310 was up 20.9%
- Fairfax Connector: Ridership of 9,574,869 was down 1.1%
- Loudoun County Transit: Ridership of 1,047,483 was up 27.8%
- Combined local bus service: Ridership of 21,158,587 was up 6.6%
- Metrobus (Northern Virginia): Ridership of 14,228,712 was down 4.8%
- Metrorail (Northern Virginia): Ridership of 78,924,798 was 7.8%
- All Metro service, including MetroAccess (Northern Virginia): 93,281,422, up 5.7%
- Virginia Railway Express: Ridership of 2,164,921, up 8.9%
Each of the systems has rebounded from Covid declines in their own ways, Spiliotopoulos said.
“We have different service patterns, modes and riders,” she said.
In November, Metrobus plans to launch an F2X route, which will serve limited stops between Spring Hill Metro station and West Alexandria. The new route is intended to augment service along the busy Route 7 corridor in Fairfax County, Falls Church and Alexandria.
The extra service is funded through the region’s Commuter Choice program.
“It’s really going to help improve frequency on the bus corridor,” Spilotropoulos said.
At the Sept. 3 meeting, both Bagley and Palchik said local transit agencies that saw strength during FY 2026 should be asked to share their experiences with those that did not fare as well.
