June 27, 2025 • 30 mins
Community DC Host Dennis Glasgow speaks with Allison Davis, the Senior Vice President, Planning and Program Development, at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will go over the massive undertaking – the first of it’s kind in 50 years with many positive changes as you’ll hear
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host, Dennis Glasgow. WAMATA is launching a new
program this morning, and it's called Better Bus. Over the
next thirty minutes, Allison Davis, the senior vice president Planning
and Program Development at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, we'll
go over the massive undertaking, the first of it's kind
in fifty years, with many positive changes that you'll hear about.
(00:28):
So I want you to sit back and enjoy our
conversation with Alison about better Bus. I hope you enjoy
it as much as I did. Good morning, Allison.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Well, it's a pleasure to welcome you to our show
for the first time in Community DC, and a lot
to talk about when it comes to Walmata. Now, our
listeners know that I'm a Northwest DC resident. Me my
wife live right by Georgia Avenue, Petworth Metro use it
a lot, also use the buses, and we are here
to talk about better Bus, better bus network. Because I
(00:58):
know it's new. There's a lot of chance just for
the better Allison. So first of all, I think we
should just educate our listeners who are very familiar with
the bus system in the DMV and Wamatta and all
that goes with it. Let's talk about Better Bus, what
it is now and what it's turning into. At the
time of this taping, we're a couple of days beforehand,
but on Sunday that day everything gets underway. So what
(01:21):
has it been and what was it turning into? Here
because I know it's pretty exciting for you guys and
the of course all the people that are going to
be using it.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yes, thank you so again, thank you for having us
on today, and yeah, we are thrilled. Today is the
launch of the Better Bus network and it's the first
overhaul of the entire metro bus system in fifty years.
And so Metrobus, like you mentioned living in the district,
I'm also a district resident, so there's service in the district,
(01:49):
but also Montgomery County, Prince George's County, all of Northern Virginia.
So we have really looked at building a more frequent
and more reliable and easier to understand systems. So new
group names and the like. And I think customers once say,
get accustomed to it. Change is hard, We understand that,
(02:10):
but they'll be pretty happy with it, and lots of
new connections, lots of streamlining, and just generally easier to
use and take to the places people want to go
when they want to travel.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So on this show, I got a chance a few
months ago to talk to Randy Clark, and as you know,
he's wonderful, engaging and cool, and there's so many fluid
things that are happening and his life along with you
and your team, and changes. And since I've talked to him,
there's been a lot of changes. Even with Metro, it's
been nuts, and it's been very positive and very cool.
I'm curious because I know this could be its own
(02:43):
separate conversation Allison about the data and all the things
that come together with making real substantial changes like you
are with better buss But was there something that precipitated
this or was it just an evolution of the system
that we have to get better and here's how we're
going to do it. Can you kind of give us
the origin of that?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes, so happy to do so. There's a lot of things, right,
this is something redesigning a network, right, It's not something
we do often. Right. So the first top kind of
in fifty years that we are really looking at the
whole network. You know, year over year we make service changes,
you know, customers know like little tweaks here, little tweaks
over there. But it's really that comprehensive. So a couple
(03:24):
of things. One, lots of new data that we have
access to. Right, so think of your cell phone. It
tells it gives off information about all the trips that
people make, right So that sounds a little sketchy, but
like you know, it's not that I know your trips,
but it's generally like we know where people are trying
to go, and we can see where there are places
(03:44):
that are close together that could be better served by transit.
Lots of people are making those connections, but we're not
serving it very well. So we're able to use that
information and that is information that we've only had in
the past couple of years to kind of help us
help us with that. But it's also you know, coming
out of the pandemic. In twenty twenty one, we launched
(04:06):
a frequent service network and that was lots of all
day so not just that peak period trips that we
used to do a lot of, but it was to
say seven am to nine pm, all day all week,
giving people consistent twelve minutes or twenty minute or better
service so they could take at any time they wanted.
We saw lots of people respond to that trips like sorry.
(04:30):
The ridership on those routes was like substantially higher. People
took that much more than just kind of the regular service,
and so that kind of showed us that there is
a hunger out there, people will respond if we put
out frequent service. So those two things combined plus kind
(04:51):
of all the new development that's happening in the region.
Right we can talk about, you know, the revamp of
Walter Reed in DC, we can talk about National Harbor,
we can talk about you know, all these places that
people trying to get to and like, frankly, we haven't
served as well as we could in the past, and
(05:13):
so all that kind of came together. And then you
mentioned our general manager. I feel say new, but he's
been here three years, and so it was really kind
of all those things together kind of made the perfect
storm of kicking off this plan and now the launch
of it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
You know, Alison, I got a chance to talk to
Randy about this, and I'd love to hear you know,
your viewpoint of it, I think we can all agree.
As horrifying as the pandemic was for everybody, it gave
businesses out there an opportunity to pivot in a very
positive way. We realized when it came to Wamata that
people were writing during the pandemic, everybody stayed at home
and you had to probably rethink the business model about
(05:52):
getting people back on metro and the buses. With all
that said, you talked about that fifty years first time,
there's been a really big change. So I imagine after
the pandem and people started to come back work and
you thought, hey, how can we get better here? How
can we service our clients? How can we get better
with the system. Can you tell us about that coming
out of that into where you are now and what
the conversations were like about how you could get better?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So interestingly, in during the pandemic, and I'm not talking
about those very early months when nobody everybody, like people
were really hunkered down, but really like once we got
over that that home, our bus ridership was actually quite
good and quite strong. We are actually currently today carrying
(06:37):
over four hundred thousand trips per day, and that's more
than we were carrying pre pandemic, but like really coming
out of the pandemic, our bus customers, they didn't a
lot of them don't have the work from home jobs,
right they are you know, working in retail, working in hospitals,
working in you know, educational facilities, you know what have
(06:59):
you everything, And it was really you know, the lifeline
for a lot of people of how they got to
work or how they still get to work. But so
the bus system was was really the like backbone of
how people many people in this region were traveling during
the pandemic. And so it was just that realization that
coming out of it, a lot of our customers aren't
(07:22):
this you know, the peak period, you know nine to
five job customer, right Their their jobs work different hours,
different days during the week, and we really needed to
you know, serve them better. And that was one of
the impetuss impetuses to uh to really how we thought
(07:42):
about designing this network and putting together the full package
for people.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So Allison can give the website here in just a second,
and we'll give that a few times and I'm sure
everybody's been on it or the apple we'll give that
to remind you. Now There is a plethora of information
on there, especially about Better Bus when it comes to
the bus stops, how the new roots are named neighborhood profiles. Folks.
There is a lot on there, but it's all good,
but you just have to digest it. And Alison, I'm
(08:08):
sure you would agree that knowledge is power, especially when
things change a little bit. So pop on the website,
check it out. But as we go through everything and
the new network and everything, there are new maps, and
I know that's really important to people, and I'm sure
there's going to be more frequency. But if you'd like
to go over some of the things that have changed
that you really want to get on people's radar, what
(08:29):
would you like to start with?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
All right, so, first of all, you mentioned the website,
so it's www. Dolmana dot com forward slash Better Bus.
I will say we just launched new app, Metropulse. But
all of the third party apps Google Maps, Apple Maps,
the transit apps, Sitting Nepper, and there's a whole plug
row of other apps that people can use. Those should
(08:53):
be updated and if they aren't updated right now, keep
checking back. They will be updated. They have all the information,
it's just on their end. On the on the third
party companies and to update their their apps anyway. So
there there is that to really understand what's happening now
the information online. Like, look, I'm a nerd. I love
a good map, and you know that's why I do
(09:15):
what I do and why many of my colleagues do
what we do. But I get that maps are incredibly
overwhelming to many people. And so really what we're telling
people to do is do it. Just think about this
one trip at a time. Plan like to your point, Dennis,
plan one trip at a time, go to you know,
trip planner or your app of choice, and just think
(09:35):
about the trip that you're making to you know, go
see your parents, go you know, meet friends out, go
to work, whatever that is. Plan that trip and then
just be cognizant that, yes, some bus stops have changed,
some routes have changed, all route names have changed, and
we can get into that in a second. But like,
(09:56):
thinking about this is really like a new trip and
a new opportunity, right. Just kind of wandering out blindly
to the stuff that you've always gone to may not
work out as well for you. So we're really trying
to give people the tools to figure out how to
engage and that said, we've got We're going to be
out today on Sunday, We're out at about eighteen different
(10:18):
locations with tons of staff out to engage people. Tomorrow Monday,
I think we're out at almost thirty locations, bus stops
and transit centers and the light to really talk to people.
And we've been out at almost two hundred and fifty
events until launch day, again telling people, trying to get
(10:39):
information into the hands of customers. And I will say
like people were I was out last week downtown d C,
and people know about it. They may not be able
to make the transition, say like oh, I'm going to
be on the D six X, which by the way
is the old S nine on sixteenth Street, but like
they might not be able to make that transition quickly,
but they're aware that change is coming when we were
(11:03):
talking to them and that that changes here. So yeah,
there there is really encourage you like to be online,
to go online. That said, we also have better bus partners,
So we worked with our community members, elected officials, some
of the business improvement districts, some of the nonprofits in
(11:23):
the region who have different ways that they access and
that they talk to their clients right who may know
about Metro and obviously take us, but not really. You know,
they're not on our social media feeds, they're not getting
our newsletters, They're not you know what I mean. Like
you're trying to to really find people wherever they're receiving information.
(11:46):
And also give a shout out to our media team
who have been We had we had a whole Spanish language,
lots of interviews and getting information out to our multi
lingual with like the Washington Post and having articles there
and in DC in the fifty first state, obviously partnering
(12:06):
with you at iHeartRadio. There's just been a lot of
information trying to hit people where they are.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
There's a lot of moving parts obviously, and I know
you're just hitting the tip of the iceberg. And you know,
one of the things I think is really cool that
you're doing and it's not that you don't have to
do it, do it, but you know, when it comes
to basic communication and follow through, you're making all these changes.
But I love that as of today you have staff
out there helping people. And I imagine there was a
conversation saying, hey, listen, we can to make all these
(12:35):
hundreds of changes and let people hang in not knowing
what they're doing. We got to get out their boots
on the ground. And I imagine that's exactly what you
wanted to do with your team.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, I mean this is a huge undertaking from an
implementation perspective. So you know, we spent two years a
little over two years planning of that, two years wait,
six months of public engagement, asking for comments, and we
got over thirty thousand comments. I got fine of luck.
There so many and we read them all and we
(13:05):
you know, we were out and about and talking to people.
But we start we got this adopted by our board,
this this new network adopted by our board last November,
and we were full on for implementation. Because you see
all those bus stop flags that that are out and
we've changed out over eight thousand bus stop flags. We
had to start designing those bus stop flags, renting them,
(13:27):
you know, getting them all ready, and then the actual
putting them up that started in March, so that we're
able to be ready now. So it's it's that we
trained twenty five hundred bus operators. There's all the back
end technology that allows you know, the head sign, you know,
the buses coming up to the bus stop and it says,
you know the D, you know the D seventy four
(13:49):
to to butt and bottom right and so like all that,
like all the stop announcements, everything, all of that has
been going on in the background, and you're write these
to be the iceberg, Like how much everyone at this
agency has just kind of come together to make it happen.
And then we're also working with all our jurisdictional partners
(14:10):
because all of those bus stops that are out there,
we don't we don't own those, right, we own the
ones that are at our our metro stations, but the
ones that you know, you engage with and you know
wherever you live, you know in Northwest DC, those are
all owned and operated by just by the District of Columbia.
So we're partnering with the data of the district Department
(14:31):
of Transportation and the equivalent and all the jurisdictions to
move bus stops, to change parking regulations because you know,
maybe we need a parking you know, we need a
little bit of curb side space. All of that, Like,
it has been an incredible journey to get to today,
but there are so many amazing people who are working
(14:52):
on this.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, well, speaking of that, Alison just dawned to me
that there's just another element that you've got to retrain
all the bus drivers. It's not only for new routes
and all the changes, but if somebody engages with them,
they have to know what they're talking about too. So
a re education for all the drive out hundreds of
drivers that you have once again, just another element for
(15:13):
what you and your team have to do to make
sure that everybody's on the same page for communication purposes.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Absolutely, and we are you know, they are are our
bus operators. I mean we engage them as part of
the planning, right because they know they know the routes
they operate like better than anyone, right, so we you know,
we got a lot of feedback from them during the
planning part and then yes, they have been all retrained
on the routes and then hopefully you know, not just
(15:41):
the routes that they are definitely driving, but within the
bus garage of that they operate out of trained on
many of those. Now that said, like if you ask
you know, one individual operator and it's some group that
they aren't operating, they may not be able to help.
But we've got information on board. The bus is to
really kind of push people to the WMDA dot com
(16:03):
forward slash better boss to be able to get the
information that someone really needs.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
You know, a little bit earlier, Alse and you were
talking about the data that you have and also the crowdsourcing,
and that's how you get better. It's the same in
my industry too. We go off of ratings and then
we hear back from our listeners, and you know, you
try and weed out what you think is constructive and not.
But I imagine with the thousands of people that reach
out to you every day, I'm curious as you get
(16:29):
all the comments, and especially with the big changes that
you've been contemplating and now executing after a couple of years,
here about where's it go from there. You've got all
the data, you've got all the comments and feedback, and
then you've got the things that you seem more constructive.
How does the process work from there? About hearing it
and saying, oh, this is an interesting idea and now
we have to investigate it and talk about it and
(16:51):
then implement it. And I'm really simplifying it, I'm sure,
but how does that whole process work?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So right right now, we are I mean, since we
adopted it and have been you know, making changes and
of course going out and putting up the new bus
stop flags and all that kind of stuff, we have
been hearing from people like, oh wait, not my bus stop.
I'm good getting rid of you know, I'm good with
with with eliminating bus stops to make buses go faster,
just not mine, right, And that's which is not in
(17:19):
any way shocking, but what you know what we are
really focused on. Look, look, we would love to run
more bus service one hundred percent. Everyone in this agency
wants to run more bus service. And pretty much everyone
we talk to it's like, please give us more frequent service,
so they want us to run more bus service too.
This bus network was done essentially funding neutral, right, We
(17:44):
did not add more money. A lot of redesigns as
you as you do them, you start hearing from this
person and that person, and they want more service, and
you end up saying like, all right, we're going to
try and do it as revenue neutral, but you kind
of add more this. We are actually running seven percent
more service for the same amount of funding that we
(18:05):
that we had, So that means I want to run more.
We're going to need some more money. But we have
as part of this whole planning effort, we had a
visionary network that was the like, if buses could run
the way my colleagues and I want them to, like,
how much frequency we need, how many you know, twenty
(18:26):
four hour routes would we want? What other connections could
we make? And so that's really as we hear from customers,
that's really kind of what we're going back to, obviously
using the data that we have on like taking the
D seventy four. We took the Mayor Bowser on a
ride along on Friday as kind of a launch event
(18:49):
for this for the network, and we rode the D
seventy four. So the D seventy four is starts over
at Rhode Island Avenue, hits Brooklyn Station, it's six hits
six rail stations or six metro stations, Brookland Petworth, down
through Columbia Heights, Non Pleasant, Adams Morgan and down to
Dupon Flog the bottom. So it kind of makes that
(19:10):
diagonal through kind of central DC. That route great like
lots of great comments on it. People are psyched to
have it. Kind of make those connections, but it's only
right now twenty minutes all day, all week. We think
we need to do more, and so those are the places,
like adding more frequency on the parts of the network
(19:32):
that are not as frequent as we think that we
should be. That's the direction I kind of see it's
going as we as we get comments back, and of
course as we get more funded. Right.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I know you're a self for some nerd when it
comes to all this stuff, and I was just thinking
I'm equating that. You know, my wife asked me, Hey,
how do you remember all those sports debts? But when
I ask you to empty the dishwasher, you can't remember that.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And as I would like to meet your wife, and.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
As I hear you just quote all this stuff, the
amount of information that you must have in your head
is absolutely incredible. Because I'm just thinking about all the
moving parts, Allison, for you and your team, it's just
incredible and daunting. Here's what I did want to ask you.
I know that in a perfect world, when it comes
to metrorail and the buses, things getting lined up so
(20:23):
people can get off one and go on another. And
I know that everything's not perfect. But as you've implemented
this new system. I imagine that's been its own set
of challenges that you're working on to make sure things
match up as best as possible, that if you get
on one, you can pop on another and not have
to wait too long. Can you kind of tell us
the process of that, because I know that metrorail is
its own thing, but you can get off a stop
(20:43):
and hop on a bus and a lot of people
do do that. So how does all that work in
the timing of it?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, I mean, I will say I have a lot
of stuff in my brain, but some of my colleagues
can start rattling off a lot of the bus. The
bus route change is a lot faster than I can, so,
thank you. So a couple of things went into exactly
your question. Right, So one of the things we really
wanted out of this network is to make rail and
(21:09):
bus kind of work together. Right. This region has invested
billions of dollars over more than fifty years for having
a rail system that works incredibly well. Like we are running,
you know, every three to four minutes on the blue
Orange Silver line in the peak. We are running almost
that on the Red line in the like we are
(21:30):
running really good rail service, and so we wanted to
be able to say, like instead of having duplicative overlapping service, like,
how do we create how do we create one full
transit network that really works together. So back in twenty
twenty one, we used to have a trend. We used
to essentially you got a fifty cent discount when you
(21:53):
would transfer from bus to rail and you would have
to still pay the full bus feed minus fifty cents.
We got rid of that, so it is you get
a full bus d for free, right essentially, like if
you transfer from bus to rail, you're getting the bus
trip for free. And you know, so that was one
thing to make it more affordable to take to make
(22:15):
those transfers the much better service that we're able to
run thanks to the long, long and storied investments in
our in our capital program to keep things up and going,
and hats off to my colleagues and our infrastructure team
who are doing that day in a day out, and
so it's a lot of that was was really kind
(22:36):
of the impetus to make these connections easier. We you know,
there's a there's a route in Virginia that the three
line that has underlying art local Art service the R
fifty five the three why we would operate out on
Wanston Boulevard and it would go straight to downtown into downtown,
(23:00):
sitting in traffic to try to get up to like
Foggy Bottom and Farragut, right, but it would sit in
lots of traffic to get there. Looking at the resources
we have, that is a route that we are no
longer going to run. But those people all still have
service on the ART fifty five and they will have
to transfer at Rosslin. But you know what, the trip
is going to be faster because they are sitting and
(23:22):
the bus is not sitting in traffic, right, And so
it was like those types of trade offs, like, look,
I'd love everyone to be on the bus, but those
are the types of trade offs when you are resource constrained,
and those are the types of things that we had
to really think through as to how to best deploy
the resources we have and make the best use of
the full transit system, not just the bus or the train.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Sure, that makes a lot of sense. And I did
want to ask you, which is a very large question,
and I don't know if you can boil it down
for us, but when you make all these changes. Obviously
there'll be hiccups and you'll work on that and you'll
get better with feedback in your team and physically seeing
what's going on on, hearing from the bus operators and
the whole thing. With that said, when you implement this
(24:06):
and put it together, the hope is obviously to get faster, better,
more accessible. When I certainly understand that as a consumer
and as a DC resident, But are there tangible numbers
that you know you're shooting for and saying that you know,
all the implementations that we've done, we'd like to get
at this point a year down the road or five
years down the road, not only to make people's life easier,
(24:27):
but there's more buses, there's faster routes, you're not sitting
in traffic. Are there tangible things that you'll be looking
to say, yeah, we are making a difference here.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I mean, we are in the business of ridership, right,
Like that is that is what makes like, yeah, people
respond by taking the trips on transit, right, So it
is really a ridership question. And like I said earlier,
we're at about a little over four hundred thousand customers
a day on bus and that is so, so we
(25:00):
want to be going up from there. Literally, it's not
like that we say we necessarily have a target, right.
The target is as many people as we get. Obviously
there are extenuating circumstances, right, I mean if you look
at Europe, gas prices are like two or three times
what they are, so that incentivice is taking transit, but
that's not where we are. But those are the things
(25:21):
that kind of get people to take transit, as well
as the fast frequent service. But the other thing is
really an accessibility. Like the reason we do this is
to get people where they want to go faster and
at the times they want to travel. And so it's
that giving people Like right now, I think coming out
of this, our numbers show that people within sixty minutes
(25:43):
will have about five percent more access to more things jobs, hospitals, shopping, schools,
you know, the places people want to go, and that
those are also job centers. By the way, that's really
the two things that we are focused on. It's really
(26:05):
the ridership and accessibility. I mean, that's what transit is.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
There are definitely people who just ride to ride, but
really people are just trying to get where they want
to go.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, and I think you're a point Alison too, that
if somebody is having a great experience on there, or
it is quicker or whatever it is, it makes your
life a little bit easier. That's when you get excited
about the ridership growing to your point, right, Yes, well,
let's do this. We only have about two or three
minutes left. I like you to recap everything. Let's give
the website one more time. People should know that if
(26:38):
they don't have, you know how to get on the
bus or to purchase bus passes through the website. And
also your new app, which is beautiful by the way,
and I know it's always improved every day. Let's talk
about how to download that, just where they can get it,
and just all the new things. And once again, folks,
there's a lot of information that is on the website
for you to digest. So I'm looking at it right now.
(26:59):
Take a look at it. There's a lot there, but
it's all spelled out with extra links that you can
go into, and it's spelled out really clearly. So Alison,
you and your team have done a great job of
putting all that information up. So let's do the website.
How to acquire a bus pass and just all the
changes and once again, what better bus is just a
gree recap what you've talked about. The floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Okay, so Wimana dot com sorry www dot Wamanta dot
com forward slash better Bus. Right, So that is all
the information for the entire new bus network that launched.
Any we just also launched metro Pulse, which is our app,
but any third party app Google Maps, Apple Maps, transit
apps sitting at there, any of those will also have
(27:41):
the updated information. And so that's really my recommendation is
planned at one trip at a time. That is how
people can kind of process what the opportunities are. And
then yes, everyone does need a smart trip card or
cash to read the bus, but if you you can
also get a SmarTrip card through your wallet on your
(28:03):
mobile phone. Right, so you can pay either Apple, the
Apple wallet or the Google Wallet if you're an Android user,
and you can simply add the smart trip card there
and then top it off and add money that way.
Also cash as well. We also have a Senior half
(28:24):
priced Senior, so sixty five and over. Anyone who is
sixty five and older in the region can can get
the Senior Smart Senior SmarTrip card. And then we also
two years ago launched Metro Lift which is for snap
qualified residents in the region and they also can get
that information and that's on Willmada dot com, so they
(28:45):
can find that information and apply or fill up the
information online that way. And so again better Bus is
the new metro bus network. It's got all new route names.
First letter is about the jurisdiction operates in, second is
kind of the corridor the neighborhood it operates in, and
then the third is an ex for limited stop or
(29:07):
the route name. And honestly, we anticipate people being pretty
happy with a lot of this get but change is
hard and we recognize that, and so we're just asking
everyone to kind of try it out, give us and
give yourself some time to see how it works better
(29:28):
for you. And we are taking comments through our customer
service team. We've got a phone number two two six
three seven seven thousand Monday through Sunday, or we've done
an online customer comment form if you'd rather do that,
and that's a dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
I'm standing Alison, thank you so much, especially in your
notice to do this. I know today is a big
day for Wamana and better bus. We really appreciate it.
We're glad that iHeart on. You guys are partners. Thank
you so much and we really appreciate you joining us
on community DC. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Thank you Dennis. Thanks, have a good one
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host, Dennis Glasgow. WAMATA is launching a new
program this morning, and it's called Better Bus. Over the
next thirty minutes, Allison Davis, the senior vice president Planning
and Program Development at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, we'll
go over the massive undertaking, the first of it's kind
in fifty years, with many positive changes that you'll hear about.
(00:28):
So I want you to sit back and enjoy our
conversation with Alison about better Bus. I hope you enjoy
it as much as I did. Good morning, Allison.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Well, it's a pleasure to welcome you to our show
for the first time in Community DC, and a lot
to talk about when it comes to Walmata. Now, our
listeners know that I'm a Northwest DC resident. Me my
wife live right by Georgia Avenue, Petworth Metro use it
a lot, also use the buses, and we are here
to talk about better Bus, better bus network. Because I
(00:58):
know it's new. There's a lot of chance just for
the better Allison. So first of all, I think we
should just educate our listeners who are very familiar with
the bus system in the DMV and Wamatta and all
that goes with it. Let's talk about Better Bus, what
it is now and what it's turning into. At the
time of this taping, we're a couple of days beforehand,
but on Sunday that day everything gets underway. So what
(01:21):
has it been and what was it turning into? Here
because I know it's pretty exciting for you guys and
the of course all the people that are going to
be using it.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yes, thank you so again, thank you for having us
on today, and yeah, we are thrilled. Today is the
launch of the Better Bus network and it's the first
overhaul of the entire metro bus system in fifty years.
And so Metrobus, like you mentioned living in the district,
I'm also a district resident, so there's service in the district,
(01:49):
but also Montgomery County, Prince George's County, all of Northern Virginia.
So we have really looked at building a more frequent
and more reliable and easier to understand systems. So new
group names and the like. And I think customers once say,
get accustomed to it. Change is hard, We understand that,
(02:10):
but they'll be pretty happy with it, and lots of
new connections, lots of streamlining, and just generally easier to
use and take to the places people want to go
when they want to travel.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So on this show, I got a chance a few
months ago to talk to Randy Clark, and as you know,
he's wonderful, engaging and cool, and there's so many fluid
things that are happening and his life along with you
and your team, and changes. And since I've talked to him,
there's been a lot of changes. Even with Metro, it's
been nuts, and it's been very positive and very cool.
I'm curious because I know this could be its own
(02:43):
separate conversation Allison about the data and all the things
that come together with making real substantial changes like you
are with better buss But was there something that precipitated
this or was it just an evolution of the system
that we have to get better and here's how we're
going to do it. Can you kind of give us
the origin of that?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes, so happy to do so. There's a lot of things, right,
this is something redesigning a network, right, It's not something
we do often. Right. So the first top kind of
in fifty years that we are really looking at the
whole network. You know, year over year we make service changes,
you know, customers know like little tweaks here, little tweaks
over there. But it's really that comprehensive. So a couple
(03:24):
of things. One, lots of new data that we have
access to. Right, so think of your cell phone. It
tells it gives off information about all the trips that
people make, right So that sounds a little sketchy, but
like you know, it's not that I know your trips,
but it's generally like we know where people are trying
to go, and we can see where there are places
(03:44):
that are close together that could be better served by transit.
Lots of people are making those connections, but we're not
serving it very well. So we're able to use that
information and that is information that we've only had in
the past couple of years to kind of help us
help us with that. But it's also you know, coming
out of the pandemic. In twenty twenty one, we launched
(04:06):
a frequent service network and that was lots of all
day so not just that peak period trips that we
used to do a lot of, but it was to
say seven am to nine pm, all day all week,
giving people consistent twelve minutes or twenty minute or better
service so they could take at any time they wanted.
We saw lots of people respond to that trips like sorry.
(04:30):
The ridership on those routes was like substantially higher. People
took that much more than just kind of the regular service,
and so that kind of showed us that there is
a hunger out there, people will respond if we put
out frequent service. So those two things combined plus kind
(04:51):
of all the new development that's happening in the region.
Right we can talk about, you know, the revamp of
Walter Reed in DC, we can talk about National Harbor,
we can talk about you know, all these places that
people trying to get to and like, frankly, we haven't
served as well as we could in the past, and
(05:13):
so all that kind of came together. And then you
mentioned our general manager. I feel say new, but he's
been here three years, and so it was really kind
of all those things together kind of made the perfect
storm of kicking off this plan and now the launch
of it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
You know, Alison, I got a chance to talk to
Randy about this, and I'd love to hear you know,
your viewpoint of it, I think we can all agree.
As horrifying as the pandemic was for everybody, it gave
businesses out there an opportunity to pivot in a very
positive way. We realized when it came to Wamata that
people were writing during the pandemic, everybody stayed at home
and you had to probably rethink the business model about
(05:52):
getting people back on metro and the buses. With all
that said, you talked about that fifty years first time,
there's been a really big change. So I imagine after
the pandem and people started to come back work and
you thought, hey, how can we get better here? How
can we service our clients? How can we get better
with the system. Can you tell us about that coming
out of that into where you are now and what
the conversations were like about how you could get better?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So interestingly, in during the pandemic, and I'm not talking
about those very early months when nobody everybody, like people
were really hunkered down, but really like once we got
over that that home, our bus ridership was actually quite
good and quite strong. We are actually currently today carrying
(06:37):
over four hundred thousand trips per day, and that's more
than we were carrying pre pandemic, but like really coming
out of the pandemic, our bus customers, they didn't a
lot of them don't have the work from home jobs,
right they are you know, working in retail, working in hospitals,
working in you know, educational facilities, you know what have
(06:59):
you everything, And it was really you know, the lifeline
for a lot of people of how they got to
work or how they still get to work. But so
the bus system was was really the like backbone of
how people many people in this region were traveling during
the pandemic. And so it was just that realization that
coming out of it, a lot of our customers aren't
(07:22):
this you know, the peak period, you know nine to
five job customer, right Their their jobs work different hours,
different days during the week, and we really needed to
you know, serve them better. And that was one of
the impetuss impetuses to uh to really how we thought
(07:42):
about designing this network and putting together the full package
for people.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So Allison can give the website here in just a second,
and we'll give that a few times and I'm sure
everybody's been on it or the apple we'll give that
to remind you. Now There is a plethora of information
on there, especially about Better Bus when it comes to
the bus stops, how the new roots are named neighborhood profiles. Folks.
There is a lot on there, but it's all good,
but you just have to digest it. And Alison, I'm
(08:08):
sure you would agree that knowledge is power, especially when
things change a little bit. So pop on the website,
check it out. But as we go through everything and
the new network and everything, there are new maps, and
I know that's really important to people, and I'm sure
there's going to be more frequency. But if you'd like
to go over some of the things that have changed
that you really want to get on people's radar, what
(08:29):
would you like to start with?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
All right, so, first of all, you mentioned the website,
so it's www. Dolmana dot com forward slash Better Bus.
I will say we just launched new app, Metropulse. But
all of the third party apps Google Maps, Apple Maps,
the transit apps, Sitting Nepper, and there's a whole plug
row of other apps that people can use. Those should
(08:53):
be updated and if they aren't updated right now, keep
checking back. They will be updated. They have all the information,
it's just on their end. On the on the third
party companies and to update their their apps anyway. So
there there is that to really understand what's happening now
the information online. Like, look, I'm a nerd. I love
a good map, and you know that's why I do
(09:15):
what I do and why many of my colleagues do
what we do. But I get that maps are incredibly
overwhelming to many people. And so really what we're telling
people to do is do it. Just think about this
one trip at a time. Plan like to your point, Dennis,
plan one trip at a time, go to you know,
trip planner or your app of choice, and just think
(09:35):
about the trip that you're making to you know, go
see your parents, go you know, meet friends out, go
to work, whatever that is. Plan that trip and then
just be cognizant that, yes, some bus stops have changed,
some routes have changed, all route names have changed, and
we can get into that in a second. But like,
(09:56):
thinking about this is really like a new trip and
a new opportunity, right. Just kind of wandering out blindly
to the stuff that you've always gone to may not
work out as well for you. So we're really trying
to give people the tools to figure out how to
engage and that said, we've got We're going to be
out today on Sunday, We're out at about eighteen different
(10:18):
locations with tons of staff out to engage people. Tomorrow Monday,
I think we're out at almost thirty locations, bus stops
and transit centers and the light to really talk to people.
And we've been out at almost two hundred and fifty
events until launch day, again telling people, trying to get
(10:39):
information into the hands of customers. And I will say
like people were I was out last week downtown d C,
and people know about it. They may not be able
to make the transition, say like oh, I'm going to
be on the D six X, which by the way
is the old S nine on sixteenth Street, but like
they might not be able to make that transition quickly,
but they're aware that change is coming when we were
(11:03):
talking to them and that that changes here. So yeah,
there there is really encourage you like to be online,
to go online. That said, we also have better bus partners,
So we worked with our community members, elected officials, some
of the business improvement districts, some of the nonprofits in
(11:23):
the region who have different ways that they access and
that they talk to their clients right who may know
about Metro and obviously take us, but not really. You know,
they're not on our social media feeds, they're not getting
our newsletters, They're not you know what I mean. Like
you're trying to to really find people wherever they're receiving information.
(11:46):
And also give a shout out to our media team
who have been We had we had a whole Spanish language,
lots of interviews and getting information out to our multi
lingual with like the Washington Post and having articles there
and in DC in the fifty first state, obviously partnering
(12:06):
with you at iHeartRadio. There's just been a lot of
information trying to hit people where they are.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
There's a lot of moving parts obviously, and I know
you're just hitting the tip of the iceberg. And you know,
one of the things I think is really cool that
you're doing and it's not that you don't have to
do it, do it, but you know, when it comes
to basic communication and follow through, you're making all these changes.
But I love that as of today you have staff
out there helping people. And I imagine there was a
conversation saying, hey, listen, we can to make all these
(12:35):
hundreds of changes and let people hang in not knowing
what they're doing. We got to get out their boots
on the ground. And I imagine that's exactly what you
wanted to do with your team.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, I mean this is a huge undertaking from an
implementation perspective. So you know, we spent two years a
little over two years planning of that, two years wait,
six months of public engagement, asking for comments, and we
got over thirty thousand comments. I got fine of luck.
There so many and we read them all and we
(13:05):
you know, we were out and about and talking to people.
But we start we got this adopted by our board,
this this new network adopted by our board last November,
and we were full on for implementation. Because you see
all those bus stop flags that that are out and
we've changed out over eight thousand bus stop flags. We
had to start designing those bus stop flags, renting them,
(13:27):
you know, getting them all ready, and then the actual
putting them up that started in March, so that we're
able to be ready now. So it's it's that we
trained twenty five hundred bus operators. There's all the back
end technology that allows you know, the head sign, you know,
the buses coming up to the bus stop and it says,
you know the D, you know the D seventy four
(13:49):
to to butt and bottom right and so like all that,
like all the stop announcements, everything, all of that has
been going on in the background, and you're write these
to be the iceberg, Like how much everyone at this
agency has just kind of come together to make it happen.
And then we're also working with all our jurisdictional partners
(14:10):
because all of those bus stops that are out there,
we don't we don't own those, right, we own the
ones that are at our our metro stations, but the
ones that you know, you engage with and you know
wherever you live, you know in Northwest DC, those are
all owned and operated by just by the District of Columbia.
So we're partnering with the data of the district Department
(14:31):
of Transportation and the equivalent and all the jurisdictions to
move bus stops, to change parking regulations because you know,
maybe we need a parking you know, we need a
little bit of curb side space. All of that, Like,
it has been an incredible journey to get to today,
but there are so many amazing people who are working
(14:52):
on this.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, well, speaking of that, Alison just dawned to me
that there's just another element that you've got to retrain
all the bus drivers. It's not only for new routes
and all the changes, but if somebody engages with them,
they have to know what they're talking about too. So
a re education for all the drive out hundreds of
drivers that you have once again, just another element for
(15:13):
what you and your team have to do to make
sure that everybody's on the same page for communication purposes.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Absolutely, and we are you know, they are are our
bus operators. I mean we engage them as part of
the planning, right because they know they know the routes
they operate like better than anyone, right, so we you know,
we got a lot of feedback from them during the
planning part and then yes, they have been all retrained
on the routes and then hopefully you know, not just
(15:41):
the routes that they are definitely driving, but within the
bus garage of that they operate out of trained on
many of those. Now that said, like if you ask
you know, one individual operator and it's some group that
they aren't operating, they may not be able to help.
But we've got information on board. The bus is to
really kind of push people to the WMDA dot com
(16:03):
forward slash better boss to be able to get the
information that someone really needs.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
You know, a little bit earlier, Alse and you were
talking about the data that you have and also the crowdsourcing,
and that's how you get better. It's the same in
my industry too. We go off of ratings and then
we hear back from our listeners, and you know, you
try and weed out what you think is constructive and not.
But I imagine with the thousands of people that reach
out to you every day, I'm curious as you get
(16:29):
all the comments, and especially with the big changes that
you've been contemplating and now executing after a couple of years,
here about where's it go from there. You've got all
the data, you've got all the comments and feedback, and
then you've got the things that you seem more constructive.
How does the process work from there? About hearing it
and saying, oh, this is an interesting idea and now
we have to investigate it and talk about it and
(16:51):
then implement it. And I'm really simplifying it, I'm sure,
but how does that whole process work?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So right right now, we are I mean, since we
adopted it and have been you know, making changes and
of course going out and putting up the new bus
stop flags and all that kind of stuff, we have
been hearing from people like, oh wait, not my bus stop.
I'm good getting rid of you know, I'm good with
with with eliminating bus stops to make buses go faster,
just not mine, right, And that's which is not in
(17:19):
any way shocking, but what you know what we are
really focused on. Look, look, we would love to run
more bus service one hundred percent. Everyone in this agency
wants to run more bus service. And pretty much everyone
we talk to it's like, please give us more frequent service,
so they want us to run more bus service too.
This bus network was done essentially funding neutral, right, We
(17:44):
did not add more money. A lot of redesigns as
you as you do them, you start hearing from this
person and that person, and they want more service, and
you end up saying like, all right, we're going to
try and do it as revenue neutral, but you kind
of add more this. We are actually running seven percent
more service for the same amount of funding that we
(18:05):
that we had, So that means I want to run more.
We're going to need some more money. But we have
as part of this whole planning effort, we had a
visionary network that was the like, if buses could run
the way my colleagues and I want them to, like,
how much frequency we need, how many you know, twenty
(18:26):
four hour routes would we want? What other connections could
we make? And so that's really as we hear from customers,
that's really kind of what we're going back to, obviously
using the data that we have on like taking the
D seventy four. We took the Mayor Bowser on a
ride along on Friday as kind of a launch event
(18:49):
for this for the network, and we rode the D
seventy four. So the D seventy four is starts over
at Rhode Island Avenue, hits Brooklyn Station, it's six hits
six rail stations or six metro stations, Brookland Petworth, down
through Columbia Heights, Non Pleasant, Adams Morgan and down to
Dupon Flog the bottom. So it kind of makes that
(19:10):
diagonal through kind of central DC. That route great like
lots of great comments on it. People are psyched to
have it. Kind of make those connections, but it's only
right now twenty minutes all day, all week. We think
we need to do more, and so those are the places,
like adding more frequency on the parts of the network
(19:32):
that are not as frequent as we think that we
should be. That's the direction I kind of see it's
going as we as we get comments back, and of
course as we get more funded. Right.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
I know you're a self for some nerd when it
comes to all this stuff, and I was just thinking
I'm equating that. You know, my wife asked me, Hey,
how do you remember all those sports debts? But when
I ask you to empty the dishwasher, you can't remember that.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
And as I would like to meet your wife, and.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
As I hear you just quote all this stuff, the
amount of information that you must have in your head
is absolutely incredible. Because I'm just thinking about all the
moving parts, Allison, for you and your team, it's just
incredible and daunting. Here's what I did want to ask you.
I know that in a perfect world, when it comes
to metrorail and the buses, things getting lined up so
(20:23):
people can get off one and go on another. And
I know that everything's not perfect. But as you've implemented
this new system. I imagine that's been its own set
of challenges that you're working on to make sure things
match up as best as possible, that if you get
on one, you can pop on another and not have
to wait too long. Can you kind of tell us
the process of that, because I know that metrorail is
its own thing, but you can get off a stop
(20:43):
and hop on a bus and a lot of people
do do that. So how does all that work in
the timing of it?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah, I mean, I will say I have a lot
of stuff in my brain, but some of my colleagues
can start rattling off a lot of the bus. The
bus route change is a lot faster than I can, so,
thank you. So a couple of things went into exactly
your question. Right, So one of the things we really
wanted out of this network is to make rail and
(21:09):
bus kind of work together. Right. This region has invested
billions of dollars over more than fifty years for having
a rail system that works incredibly well. Like we are running,
you know, every three to four minutes on the blue
Orange Silver line in the peak. We are running almost
that on the Red line in the like we are
(21:30):
running really good rail service, and so we wanted to
be able to say, like instead of having duplicative overlapping service, like,
how do we create how do we create one full
transit network that really works together. So back in twenty
twenty one, we used to have a trend. We used
to essentially you got a fifty cent discount when you
(21:53):
would transfer from bus to rail and you would have
to still pay the full bus feed minus fifty cents.
We got rid of that, so it is you get
a full bus d for free, right essentially, like if
you transfer from bus to rail, you're getting the bus
trip for free. And you know, so that was one
thing to make it more affordable to take to make
(22:15):
those transfers the much better service that we're able to
run thanks to the long, long and storied investments in
our in our capital program to keep things up and going,
and hats off to my colleagues and our infrastructure team
who are doing that day in a day out, and
so it's a lot of that was was really kind
(22:36):
of the impetus to make these connections easier. We you know,
there's a there's a route in Virginia that the three
line that has underlying art local Art service the R
fifty five the three why we would operate out on
Wanston Boulevard and it would go straight to downtown into downtown,
(23:00):
sitting in traffic to try to get up to like
Foggy Bottom and Farragut, right, but it would sit in
lots of traffic to get there. Looking at the resources
we have, that is a route that we are no
longer going to run. But those people all still have
service on the ART fifty five and they will have
to transfer at Rosslin. But you know what, the trip
is going to be faster because they are sitting and
(23:22):
the bus is not sitting in traffic, right, And so
it was like those types of trade offs, like, look,
I'd love everyone to be on the bus, but those
are the types of trade offs when you are resource constrained,
and those are the types of things that we had
to really think through as to how to best deploy
the resources we have and make the best use of
the full transit system, not just the bus or the train.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Sure, that makes a lot of sense. And I did
want to ask you, which is a very large question,
and I don't know if you can boil it down
for us, but when you make all these changes. Obviously
there'll be hiccups and you'll work on that and you'll
get better with feedback in your team and physically seeing
what's going on on, hearing from the bus operators and
the whole thing. With that said, when you implement this
(24:06):
and put it together, the hope is obviously to get faster, better,
more accessible. When I certainly understand that as a consumer
and as a DC resident, But are there tangible numbers
that you know you're shooting for and saying that you know,
all the implementations that we've done, we'd like to get
at this point a year down the road or five
years down the road, not only to make people's life easier,
(24:27):
but there's more buses, there's faster routes, you're not sitting
in traffic. Are there tangible things that you'll be looking
to say, yeah, we are making a difference here.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I mean, we are in the business of ridership, right,
Like that is that is what makes like, yeah, people
respond by taking the trips on transit, right, So it
is really a ridership question. And like I said earlier,
we're at about a little over four hundred thousand customers
a day on bus and that is so, so we
(25:00):
want to be going up from there. Literally, it's not
like that we say we necessarily have a target, right.
The target is as many people as we get. Obviously
there are extenuating circumstances, right, I mean if you look
at Europe, gas prices are like two or three times
what they are, so that incentivice is taking transit, but
that's not where we are. But those are the things
(25:21):
that kind of get people to take transit, as well
as the fast frequent service. But the other thing is
really an accessibility. Like the reason we do this is
to get people where they want to go faster and
at the times they want to travel. And so it's
that giving people Like right now, I think coming out
of this, our numbers show that people within sixty minutes
(25:43):
will have about five percent more access to more things jobs, hospitals, shopping, schools,
you know, the places people want to go, and that
those are also job centers. By the way, that's really
the two things that we are focused on. It's really
(26:05):
the ridership and accessibility. I mean, that's what transit is.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
There are definitely people who just ride to ride, but
really people are just trying to get where they want
to go.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, and I think you're a point Alison too, that
if somebody is having a great experience on there, or
it is quicker or whatever it is, it makes your
life a little bit easier. That's when you get excited
about the ridership growing to your point, right, Yes, well,
let's do this. We only have about two or three
minutes left. I like you to recap everything. Let's give
the website one more time. People should know that if
(26:38):
they don't have, you know how to get on the
bus or to purchase bus passes through the website. And
also your new app, which is beautiful by the way,
and I know it's always improved every day. Let's talk
about how to download that, just where they can get it,
and just all the new things. And once again, folks,
there's a lot of information that is on the website
for you to digest. So I'm looking at it right now.
(26:59):
Take a look at it. There's a lot there, but
it's all spelled out with extra links that you can
go into, and it's spelled out really clearly. So Alison,
you and your team have done a great job of
putting all that information up. So let's do the website.
How to acquire a bus pass and just all the
changes and once again, what better bus is just a
gree recap what you've talked about. The floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Okay, so Wimana dot com sorry www dot Wamanta dot
com forward slash better Bus. Right, So that is all
the information for the entire new bus network that launched.
Any we just also launched metro Pulse, which is our app,
but any third party app Google Maps, Apple Maps, transit
apps sitting at there, any of those will also have
(27:41):
the updated information. And so that's really my recommendation is
planned at one trip at a time. That is how
people can kind of process what the opportunities are. And
then yes, everyone does need a smart trip card or
cash to read the bus, but if you you can
also get a SmarTrip card through your wallet on your
(28:03):
mobile phone. Right, so you can pay either Apple, the
Apple wallet or the Google Wallet if you're an Android user,
and you can simply add the smart trip card there
and then top it off and add money that way.
Also cash as well. We also have a Senior half
(28:24):
priced Senior, so sixty five and over. Anyone who is
sixty five and older in the region can can get
the Senior Smart Senior SmarTrip card. And then we also
two years ago launched Metro Lift which is for snap
qualified residents in the region and they also can get
that information and that's on Willmada dot com, so they
(28:45):
can find that information and apply or fill up the
information online that way. And so again better Bus is
the new metro bus network. It's got all new route names.
First letter is about the jurisdiction operates in, second is
kind of the corridor the neighborhood it operates in, and
then the third is an ex for limited stop or
(29:07):
the route name. And honestly, we anticipate people being pretty
happy with a lot of this get but change is
hard and we recognize that, and so we're just asking
everyone to kind of try it out, give us and
give yourself some time to see how it works better
(29:28):
for you. And we are taking comments through our customer
service team. We've got a phone number two two six
three seven seven thousand Monday through Sunday, or we've done
an online customer comment form if you'd rather do that,
and that's a dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
I'm standing Alison, thank you so much, especially in your
notice to do this. I know today is a big
day for Wamana and better bus. We really appreciate it.
We're glad that iHeart on. You guys are partners. Thank
you so much and we really appreciate you joining us
on community DC. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Thank you Dennis. Thanks, have a good one
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