Inconsistent policies on bus fares and enforcement are creating confusion among riders and challenges for transit in Northern Virginia, Metro’s top official says.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority CEO Randy Clarke critiqued the D.C. area’s patchwork of rules for where riders must pay to ride the bus, along with the limits placed on the Metro system’s ability to enforce its payment requirement.
County officials now have real-world data on how Arlington Transit’s electric buses operate in winter’s chill.
Frigid temperatures in late January created unique challenges for the county’s fleet, draining batteries more quickly than normal and sometimes requiring a midday recharge, said Ryan Jones, a transportation planner who briefed the county’s Transit Advisory Committee on March 10.
Arlington Transit (ART) bus service is riding a post-Covid bump up in customer satisfaction.
A survey of 2,000 riders conducted on buses late last year found a 92% overall satisfaction rate, according to data presented March 10 to the county’s Transit Advisory Committee.
One Arlington leader wants localities to be more aggressive in seeking transportation and transit funding along the I-66 corridor.
County Board member Takis Karantonis lamented that nearly $40 million in available funding will be left on the table in the latest round of “I-66 Commuter Choice” grants.
Reduced hours at the Shirlington Transit Center, driven by vandalism concerns and budget constraints, prompted criticisms during last week’s bitter cold.
The transit center at 2975 S. Quincy Street cut its hours to 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on weekdays and eliminated Saturday hours entirely on Nov. 14. It was a significant reduction from the center’s previous hours of 5:30 a.m. to midnight.
Main roads and highways around Arlington are mostly clear, after an inch or less of snow fell across the county.
Traffic cameras show mostly wet roads, though many neighborhood streets remain snow-covered after the overnight snowfall. The last of the flakes stopped falling in Arlington around 8 a.m.
An automated system that adjusts the timing of traffic signals when buses are running late is helping to improve transit reliability along Langston Blvd.
Since late summer, county transportation officials have been using “transit signal priority” along the 5-mile corridor from East Falls Church to Rosslyn. The system extends green lights and shortens red lights when ART buses are behind schedule — resulting in a small but measurable impact.
State Sen. Adam Ebbin has promised Arlington leaders that he will push to bring home more transit funding from the 2026 General Assembly session.
“That’ll probably be the most intense of the things I’m working on,” Ebbin (D-39) said during a Nov. 13 work session between County Board members and the community’s legislative delegation.
Arlington Transit (ART) in fiscal 2025 returned to service levels last seen immediately preceding the pandemic, according to county officials.
About 2.62 million passengers rode the local service between July 2024 and June 2025, on par with the period between July 2019 and June 2020.
A multimillion-dollar project adding new bus bays and pedestrian improvements to the East Falls Church Metro station begins next week.
Plans at 2001 N. Sycamore Street call for the construction of three new bus bays, as well as updates to nearby sidewalks, crosswalks, bus shelters and utilities. The first phase will begin in the station’s north parking lot, county spokesperson Claudia Pors told ARLnow.
Police are investigating two separate reports of someone shooting projectiles at Arlington Transit buses on S. Glebe Road.
Neither bus had any passengers and no one was injured, but both ART buses sustained damage to their windows, according to preliminary incident reports from the Arlington County Police Department.
County leaders are promising action after an audit found major deficiencies in the operation and oversight of a transit program serving Arlington residents with disabilities.
Identified issues with the Specialized Transit for Arlington Residents (STAR) program ranged from billing discrepancies to a lack of review of driver manifests by WeDriveU, which operates the paratransit program under contract to the county.
