Metrobus (Washington, D.C.)
Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Its fleet consists of 1,595 buses covering an area of in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. There are 269 bus routes serving 11,129 stops, including 2,554 bus shelters. In 2016, Metrobus provided approximately 123.6 million trips. On a typical weekday in June 2017, it provided more than 390,000 trips.
History
Metrobus was founded on February 4, 1973, after acquiring DC Transit, Washington, Virginia and Maryland Coach Company, Alexandria, Barcroft and Washington Transit Company and the Washington Marlboro and Annapolis Motor Lines to combine into Metrobus. During its foundings, WMATA drops transfer charges, extends senior citizen discounts region-wide and begins selected fare reductions on routes formerly served by the different carriers at different rates. WMATA also unifies a new bus livery with red, white and blue paint scheme and purchases 620 buses from AM General with the last buses being delivered in 1974.Fares
NOTE: all fares are free since mid-March 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, up to further notice., the Metrobus fare structure is as follows for cash and SmarTrip:
- Local bus routes within the District of Columbia, Central Maryland and Northern Virginia: $2.00
- Express bus routes : $4.25
- Express Airport bus routes : $7.50
Up to two children, per paying adult, under 5 years of age ride for free. Children at least 5 years of age pay adult fare.
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All Metrobuses have SmarTrip card readers which automatically deduct the correct fare from a rider's SmarTrip card.
Metrobus issued paper transfers until January 4, 2009. Transfers are now currently attainable only through SmarTrip cards.
On June 27, 2010, the transfer window was reduced from 3 hours to 2 hours.
Fleet
On July 4, 2018, WMATA awarded a 5-year contract to New Flyer for up to 694 buses, order consist of forty-foot CNG, forty-foot clean diesel, sixty-foot CNG, and sixty-foot diesel heavy-duty transit buses. These new buses will replace Metro's older Orion V buses, which were delivered in 2000, and Metro's older Orion VII CNG buses, which were delivered in 2005–2006. Red/Silver painted buses will be used on local routes and Blue/Silver buses will be used on limited stop routes. These buses will have either Local or MetroExtra on the top of each side of the bus for easy identification.WMATA is adding a total of 533 hybrid buses to replace its diesel bus fleet. Each new "New Flyer Xcelsior XDE40" bus costs $571,737 and is expected to break down less frequently as well as offer greater fuel economy. With the latest purchase of 152 hybrid buses for $89.3 million from New Flyer of America, WMATA's Metrobus fleet will consist of 297 diesel buses, 800 hybrid buses and 458 natural gas fueled buses. Additionally, WMATA placed an order for 110 new buses from New Flyer on September 18, 2019.
Divisions
There are 10 divisions in the Metrobus system.Division | Location | Areas served | Capacity | Notes |
Andrews Federal Center | Southwest DC, Prince George's County | 175 | Opened June 23, 2019 | |
Bladensburg | Northeast and Southeast DC | 257 | Plans to be rebuilt. | |
Cinder Bed Road | Fairfax County | 160 | Opened 2018, operated by the private contractor TransDev | |
Four Mile Run | Arlington County, Fairfax County, City of Alexandria | 218 | Handles West Ox Division routes on the weekends | |
Landover | Prince George's County | 210 | ||
Montgomery | Montgomery County | 240 | ||
Southern Avenue Annex | Southeast DC, Prince George's County | 103 | Operates Weekdays only, formerly known as "Prince George's" Division up until 1989 | |
Shepherd Parkway | Southeast and Southwest DC, Prince George's County | 250 | Opened in 2012 | |
West Ox | Arlington County, Fairfax County | 100 | Operates Weekdays only, shared with Fairfax Connector | |
Western | Northwest DC | 138 |
Closed depots
Routes
Numbering
Most Metrobus routes follow the rules below:- Metrobus routes in Washington, D.C. have either a two digit number or a letter followed by a number
- Metrobus routes in Montgomery County, MD have a letter followed by a number
- Metrobus routes in Prince George's County, MD have a letter followed by two numbers
- Metrobus routes in Northern Virginia have one or two numbers followed by a letter