D.C. Metro investing $5M in bus upgrades

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) will invest $5 million over the next year to provide customers with better bus service with the first round of improvements taking effect in less than a month.

The effort represents the biggest improvement to bus service in five years and will include the introduction of new limited-stop MetroExtra routes on three new travel corridors, conversion of four existing routes to limited-stop MetroExtra service and refinements to eleven existing priority corridors.

The first round of improvements will take effect June 17 and are intended to improve on-time performance and reliability while reducing crowding for customers along several routes in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. More than 150,000 customers — roughly one-third of all bus customers — will benefit from more frequent service, additional capacity and expanded hours of operation on selected MetroExtra routes.

Over the next year, Metro will invest more than $3 million to advance its Priority Corridor Network, benefitting customers with improved service and increased capacity.