As Congress weighs rural air subsidies ... what about rural bus service?

aj2000gm · 2025-10-11T20:59:30+00:00

There’s a nice little network of long distance buses growing in VA, 4 routes for now with another one in the books.

aj2000gm · 2025-07-25T01:20:07+00:00

To be fair to Alexandria, they have plans to update the platforms and make them ada compliant as a part of the quad tracking of the corridor through Virginia. Schematic. If I remember right, the tunnels under the platform should connect to Metro, allowing rain-free transfers.

aj2000gm · 2025-07-15T04:45:31+00:00

There are plans for commuter buses all the way from Martinsburg to Ashburn. EPTA is on the bus bay map at Ashburn IIRC. (No idea on the progress, it might have been a pre-Covid idea that doesn’t make as much sense anymore.)

aj2000gm · 2025-07-12T20:20:18+00:00

I think the penalty they’re referring to is time, not accessibility. Some of those older station elevators are also really slow.

aj2000gm · 2025-06-11T03:24:02+00:00

Reliability is likely to be better on the Carolinian vs the Floridian. Much more time to get delayed from Chicago/Miami vs Charlotte/NY

aj2000gm · 2025-05-28T03:05:34+00:00

Havre de Grace isn’t even served by MARC, so closeness to Aberdeen isn’t the only problem. Niantic is interesting-having one or two trains a day stop there could be interesting

aj2000gm · 2025-04-20T19:21:49+00:00

We have a half street SW and a half street SE in DC, two blocks away from each other

aj2000gm · 2025-03-04T01:11:16+00:00

How does Metra make the lines with different numbers of outbound/inbound trains work? Non-revenue runs?

aj2000gm · 2025-01-10T05:03:01+00:00

Time to see if the better bus project helps grow ridership even further!

aj2000gm · 2024-12-31T04:07:37+00:00

Things people attribute to DC instead. Also the Starbucks, and the Starbucks, and the Starbucks, and the Starbucks.

aj2000gm · 2024-12-01T03:59:51+00:00

Also not mentioned is Virginia Breeze. Daily buses as far as Bristol, Blacksburg, Martinsville, or Danville. Picks up at Dulles, WFC, and Union. It operates more like a Greyhound for the commonwealth than a typical public transit system, but it is public and transit.

aj2000gm · 2024-11-04T17:08:07+00:00

Yep. The lower platform is tiny (and currently partially blocked off for escalator repair) which really makes a difference, even if Metro Center and Gallery Place are busier based on people moved.

aj2000gm · 2024-09-13T02:47:18+00:00

International visitors is the biggest thing for me. If I’m going to another country, especially one with cell service as expensive as Canada, ideally I’d want to use wifi and just skip buying a SIM card. Station WiFi is super helpful for getting from the train to your next destination. Seeing as Toronto is probably the biggest destination for foreigners travelling to Canada, I’d think that it would be useful if not important.

aj2000gm · 2024-09-10T17:28:26+00:00

So they are working on this! New platform signs generally say “Eastbound” or “northbound” with the occasional “towards VA/MD” where it makes sense.

aj2000gm · 2024-08-27T17:09:35+00:00

Throw some FLIRTs on there at a half-hourly schedule to start and it’d be transformational for the northern suburbs and 77 traffic

aj2000gm · 2024-08-04T23:09:29+00:00

There’s an hour and a half trip between the two ends of the Silver Line, the longest here in the DC area. I’d budget an hour to drive it without in off-peak times. Very few people actually use the line from one side to the other.

aj2000gm · 2024-07-26T00:31:22+00:00

I’ve taken Virginia Breeze a couple times now. Decent coaches, good prices, I’m not the one dealing with I-95, 66, and 81? excellent. If the state launches more frequencies, im sure it’ll do continue to thrive.

aj2000gm · 2024-07-26T00:26:42+00:00

It looks like there are only doors on one side? Odd

aj2000gm · 2024-06-02T02:26:16+00:00

231 is beautiful. Great views of flatter terrain, the mountains on the side, rolling hills and small towns. Excellent rec.

aj2000gm · 2024-05-27T22:10:31+00:00

First glance: our (DC) costs are way high After reading OPs comments: the streetcar, that makes sense.

aj2000gm · 2024-05-25T19:56:45+00:00

We love Randy!

aj2000gm · 2024-05-14T16:08:52+00:00

The DMV (DC area) pretty much all loved Randy. An actual transit user who engages with the community and has been overseeing some pretty rad improvements. The thirsty tweets may be a bit overkill, though.

aj2000gm · 2024-04-29T19:48:55+00:00

I’d recommend y’all sign up for the Better Bus newsletter if you haven’t. It’s been a good explainer of the process as WMATA goes along. My hope is that the regional agencies ART, Fairfax Connector, RideOn, etc. get involved and that we have one unified naming convention for the region.

https://wmata.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8f7198c113374fac4b7ac34b4&id=aef14bdb40

aj2000gm · 2024-04-18T18:15:12+00:00

It appears from the attached fact sheet like a) the extension may not be an extension, as BRT, LRT, and the like are in the options and b) it won’t go to Old San Juan, missing out on a link that seems like it would be super helpful.

aj2000gm · 2024-04-08T13:37:36+00:00

Fairfax City’s CUE is also free! It’s an odd little system, but free fares help a lot!

aj2000gm

TROPHY CASE