A plan to upgrade Metro’s service and long-term sustainability by establishing dedicated funding for the transit system won backing Monday afternoon (Nov. 17) from two key panels.
The boards of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) each formally endorsed the funding plan laid out in late October by the DMV Moves Task Force at a joint meeting.
As county and regional leaders gathered yesterday (Wednesday) to mark the 40th anniversary of the Fairfax Connector bus service, nearly everyone wanted to get a photo taken with John Ashford.
Ashford was one of the original drivers when the local bus system began operations in September 1985, and he remains behind the wheel today.
Metro’s first major overhaul of its bus network in decades is set to take effect this coming Sunday (June 29).
Approved by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Board of Directors last November, the Better Bus Network redesign will introduce revised routes and new signage, while also eliminating a number of stops.
The Monument Drive Transit Center is a fairly grandiose name for what’s basically a large parking garage and bus stop, but as the facility approaches its one-year anniversary, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation credits the facility for an uptick in bus ridership along I-66.
The $43 million facility launched at 12113 Government Center Parkway near Fairfax Corner last June with 820 free parking spaces, electric vehicle charging stations, a secure bike room and bike racks. It connects to a large roundabout for buses that serve 13 Fairfax Connector routes and two Metrobus routes.
For the immediate future at least, further expansion of rail lines across the D.C. region is likely to take a back seat to more modest upgrades to transit service moving forward.
That seemed to be a consensus, albeit not a unanimous one, as members of the regional DMV Moves task force met Monday (March 24) to narrow options for improving the area’s transit — and paying for a Metro system that’s now estimated to cost between $450 million and $600 million more per year.
The first major redesign of Metro’s bus operating network since the system’s founding in the early 1970s will help Fairfax County riders and those across the region, local transit leaders say.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) board of directors approved the Better Bus Network redesign last Thursday, Nov. 21. Two years in the making, the changes aim to create a more seamless, easy-to-understand system for riders that’s also more efficient for the transit agency.
Riders on Metro’s Silver Line and other lines serving Fairfax County could see a number of service improvements coming down the track.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s board of directors got a first look at the transit agency’s fiscal year 2026 budget conditions and, if funding allows, potential service improvements at a meeting of its finance and capital committee last Thursday (Nov. 21).
Elections have consequences, and now, Northern Virginia leaders are in wait-and-see mode on what those could be for local transit and transportation funding.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) board met Thursday (Nov. 7) for the first time since the 2024 general election, when Donald Trump regained the presidency and Republicans took control of at least one chamber of Congress — an unnerving prospect for Northern Virginia’s mostly Democratic political leaders.
Fairfax County leaders want Gov. Glenn Youngkin to boost state funding for critical services, such as schools, transportation and health care.
The Board of Supervisors voted 9-1 on Tuesday (Sept. 24) to send a letter to Youngkin arguing that chronic underfunding by the state has forced localities like Fairfax County to lean heavily on local tax revenue to maintain “core services” like public education, public safety and transportation infrastructure, straining local budgets and taxpayers.
More than 80% of people surveyed in the National Capital Region said they “support more and better transit services, even if it requires higher investment by the region,” according to a survey conducted by two advisory groups associated with a regional task group’s effort to create a new funding plan for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro).
Under a proposed funding plan known as Scenario 1, the advisory groups said the region would have to generate an additional $645 million to cover all the transit agencies in fiscal year 2028, with 70% of the funds for capital investments.
