It’s official—a new bus system is coming to DC. The Better Bus initiative, originally announced by WMATA last spring, outlined a complete overhaul of current Metrobus routes promising to improve wait times and make the route names less confusing.
The finalized plan was released Monday, with the rollout of the new service slated around summer 2025. Here’s what you need to know:
WMATA is removing around 500 stops
Before you panic, most of these stops were chosen for removal because they were close enough to another bus stop (660 feet or less apart, to be exact), and either showed low ridership, a lack of safe pedestrian access (like crosswalks or sidewalks), or both. Some of the stops on WMATA’s chopping block were kept, marked on their spreadsheet as “retained.”
Having fewer bus stops isn’t just a way to cut the budget, it’s designed to make bus service more efficient—if there are fewer stops, commuting time will be faster and more reliable. The full list of axed stops can be found here.
All routes are being renamed and redesigned
Some routes, like Georgetown-LeDroit Park route G2 and Largo-Bowie route C26, have nearly identical Better Bus counterparts, while others were completely reworked. For the most part, coverage will not change, but the name of every route will be different under the Better Bus program. Riders will no longer have to memorize seemingly-random number-letter combinations to get where they need to go—under the new initiative, there is a naming system in place.
The first letter of the route describes the area it’s in— “D” or “C” for, well, DC routes, “P” for Prince George’s County, “M” for Montgomery County, “A” for Alexandria and Arlington, and “F” for Fairfax and Falls Church. The second character, a number, describes the neighborhood the route runs in, and the third character is either a number, labeling the route within its cluster, or the letter X, to denote that it is an express, limited-stop route.
In addition to a complete rework of Metrobus stops, Metro is absorbing all the routes previously run by the Prince George’s County TheBus system—replacing them with aptly-named Metrobus routes. WMATA has also invited other local transit authorities to follow suit in their naming system to make it uniform and easy to remember for riders.
Find your new route
You can find the new Better Bus counterpart to your usual routes on these linked sheets for DC, Virginia, and Maryland, respectively. Maps, fact sheets, and a summary of the changes coming under Better Bus can be found on the program’s resources page.
