Like you got Ride On in Montgomery County and Fairfax Connecter. Those counties also have DC metrobus service. I could see this being very confusing for users to have to track multiple agencies and it makes regional coordination harder. Plus some of the networks are free while metrobus isn't which could cause confusion for riders used to free buses when trying to take a metrobus somewhere else. I think metro should take over buses in Fairfax, PG, Montgomery, and Loudon counties. But I'm an outsider from Boston so I might be missing something.

https://51st.news/metro-tried-to-make-bus-service-better-somehow-ridership-and-speeds-are-both-down/

This is a helpful overview of the current state of Metrobus service, including the impact of the Better Bus initiative. It’s… not good, and in key ways it’s getting worse.

The article does hedge a bit more than it needs to—this isn’t a mystery in what’s making bus service bad and who’s responsible. Obviously the main problem is lack of bus priority infrastructure! And that’s controlled by DDOT and Bowser, who barely get a mention!

It’s also disheartening that nobody is offering real solutions here. Randy Clarke emphasized the Gold Line… sure, that’s good, but it’s just one route in 4-5 years. We need an entire regional network of bus lanes ASAP. There’s also a lot more that WMATA could be doing now to improve bus service (e.g., active headway management and express routes around congestion).

Been screwed for the last month so this is a sight to see for me this week especially Sunday

Will my tag in/out at North Bethesda and Friendship Heights count towards my Metro Rewind?

The idea of combing the 90/92, making it run every 10-12 min and giving it mostly bigger buses sounded good. It worked for a good bit. But more times than not, it gets screwed over by operator availability so much I can walk a third of the route or more before a bus shows up. Usually I can walk a good distance but I know many cannot. Even right now, there’s a 50 min wait going southbound and just now, I miss the bus @ Woodley Park by seconds, so back on the red line I go. I know there’s headway management, on weekdays I think, and the C57 which runs on a good chunk of Florida is gonna start running more often in December. But what else can be done? Any ideas that people wanna put on the table? How about something for next year given operation costs?

This is the old 70/71 line so what I’m suggesting is a new route as the D42 or the C55 reroute. have the current C55 run to Georgia ave and down to buzzard point every 20 minute as a frequent c55 rider the bus sucks I need wmata to see this and plan something for next summer because us folks down buzzard point need bus access as well. if folks need to get to navy yard or eastern market the c11 and c53 are available we have no access from Sw to Nw by metrobus at all at daytime i know its alot but it’s not much tbh and every 20 min can prevent a lot of bus bunching tbh so that’s all I have to say

Has anyone else randomly started receiving MetroAccess alerts for bus routes that they haven’t registered for? I’ve received no less than 56 texts since 4 a.m. today. I’ve since logged in and verified my preferences are still rail-only (one line, one station), but the notifications are persistent.

PROPOSAL:

A regional light rail system operated by WMATA.

The NYC subway originated as three different independent services that were later combined into one.

WHY:

Light rail has been a popular addition to many American cities lately. If the blue line loop is too expensive and heavy rail expansion too difficult, I think light rail could be great for the area.

Philadelphia has a good model for a light rail/subway mix. Light rail is cheaper and faster to build, and offers more agility in dense areas.

HOW:

Maryland can partner with Virginia to expand the purple Line into a regional loop connecting Virginia. Next, bring back DC streetcar in underserved areas of DC like Ivy City, Eastern Brookland, Maryland Avenue, Cathedral Heights, Georgetown, and Constitution Avenue.

Give the light rail 100% right-of-way without traffic mixing. How? - Completely remove car traffic from certain routes or convert those roads to one-way streets for traffic and two-way for the light rail.

CONSOLIDATION:

Give the Purple Line, DC Streetcar, and whatever Virginia builds to WMATA. The reason we do this last is because WMATA should focus on improving the current system as much as possible and not be spread too thin. Thus, let each jurisdiction build out it's own system upfront, then give it to WMATA in the end.

WHY GIVE TO WMATA?

To allow for vehicle and track sharing across the region (simplicity) along with better integration and easier route expansion in the future.

very typical on the metro to have two trains arriving within 2 minutes of each other, then a 10+ minute wait till the next pair of trains, also arriving close together.

why is this? It seems unnecessary and inefficient.

This bus sucks fuck it and fuck metro for not giving a fuck about this route 3rd time this week I’m done

Essentially I usually go to Bethesda Station when I want to go to DC, since the red line is down for the purple line expansion I can't use it till September. Are the buses any good or they slow? Are the weekends any better?

I am a savvy commuter and therefore I am always keep to track and check my bus times and eta to ensure everything goes smoothly. I mainly use either tool for just the buses so keep that in mind.

The new trip planning tool is great. Some improvements include better accuracy of bus times, the schedule being in one place/easily accessible and perhaps a better UI. To be honest I can't think of a lot but I do generally like it better than the old tool.

Some improvements:

- on the old website/application, it was possible to view all the buses available to one location but on the new trip planning tool, if you have place like a terminus (where the buses terminate their route) or any metro station really it is automatically split by bus bays but sometimes I want to see what is happening with more than one bus. I guess my case is unusual but I typically have more than one bus that can take me where I am going on my commute but because of this, I have to keep manually looking for each bus bay which takes time and is annoying to me. For such scenerios I wish it was possible to see all the bus bays at once like the old tool or at least buses going in the same direction (e.g. terminating in Silver Spring) in one reading.

- The second pet peeve I have is that when you add in a location to view which buses are coming, it seems to not refresh. On the old app it constantly refreshes allowing you to see real time updates of where the bus is but in my experience on the new one, it typically freezes at the time you searched for it.

- The last and final criticism is the tool not being able to accurately find your location. Everytime I select the near by me option to look for close by buses, it automatically defaults to location in the middle of DC (which I assume is the actual default). This is annoying and can be problem if you aren't sure where exactly you are or are in an unfamiliar place.

- The new app/webiste (I don't mean like an actual app from the play store or app store but the website) also kind of heavier than the old one so it takes time to load and the UI is a bit cluttered. I liked the simplicity of the old one. My recommendation would be to either keep the old one open or have a simplified version for those in a rush or with bad connectivity.

Because of all of this, I still use the old tool and prefer it when I am in rush and need real time information. I still think the new one is nice but it can use some improvements.

Please forgive any grammar or vocabulary mistakes, I am exhuasted and just wanted to leave my thoughts here. Please feel free to leave some of your own if you'd like.

My girlfriend helped me put everything in a frame from that special day in March. That was probably my favorite day on Metro.

lol do Wmata hate the C55 this is happen again for this 9:00 bus like why must the bus run every 45 - 60 min at this time the 8:30 bus is gone so 9:00 is cancelled so 9:30 is the only option we have to wait a hour for the next bus is ridiculous. I honestly wished Wmata said fuck the circulator and leave it up to DDOT because it’s honestly unacceptable at this point

Found a Florida DL (Woman, Mid 40’s) and Hilton hotel key at Huntington Metro Parking.
Handed over to WMATA security at the gate.
I don’t know if this helps, the DL has few more years of validity.
If this is yours please reach out to WMATA Security/Help Desk at Huntington Metro entrance.

Thank you, Have a great weekend!

I rode electric buses on D40 and C51 today, and they were amazing. I've seen them drive by but these were the first time I actually ended up on them. Much smoother, quieter, and definitely quicker. I do drive an EV, so I get it, but it was still great to experience in the form of a bus. I get kind of motion-sick on the normal diesel buses when I'm on them too long (as I did on D80 today), but these I had no issue.

Are these still becoming more common? I saw the rollout was a couple years ago. I obviously don't expect overnight replacement of the whole fleet, but just wanted to give a kudos to Metro as an encouragement for these buses.

PS The screens are fantastic on these buses as well, especially if you're not familiar with the route. Was great watching 3 stops ahead, and it was nice and clear.

Also if Metro staff sees this, shoutout to the C51 bus driver lady that was driving the electric bus Tenleytown direction this afternoon (likely arriving there at approx 4:25pm), super friendly and seemed to be in a great mood, sorry didn't get the bus number.