As the state studies a potential consolidation of several Northern Virginia bus systems, year-over-year data showed Alexandria’s DASH continues to see ridership growth.
The data presented to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission on Sept. 3 focused on transit providers in Northern Virginia — Arlington Transit, City of Fairfax CUE, Alexandria DASH, Fairfax Connector, Loudoun County Transit, Metro and Virginia Railway Express.
Alexandria’s DASH Bus system had a 10% ridership increase in the last fiscal year ending June 30, according to data from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. More than 6.9 million riders were reported in the 2026 fiscal year.
“We’ve seen DASH continue to put up great numbers,” NVTC’s data visualization program manager Sophie Spiliotopoulos said. “They keep hitting ridership milestones, I believe they’re now over 6 million riders a year, quite over.”
DASH Bus has been fare free since September 2021. According to the DRPT data, DASH posted its highest ridership month with over 651,000 riders in October 2025. Alexandria also recently introduced free Metrobus SMARtrip passes for students to complement fare-free DASH service.
Metrorail ridership is also on an upward trajectory with a 9% year-over-year increase. Spiliotopoulos noted that more riders are using transit on the weekends, giving Metrorail a 29% annual increase in Saturday ridership since 2021.
“Metro continues to improve service and the rider experience, which has definitely helped with this growth,” Spiliotopoulos said.
Loudoun County Transit surpassed both systems with a 28% ridership increase, and Arlington Transit reported a 1.1% increase. Meanwhile, Fairfax County’s Fairfax Connector experienced a 1.1% drop, and Fairfax City’s CUE service was down 4.5%.
Across Northern Virginia, NVTC reported 1.5 million weekly Metrorail riders, 677,000 weekly bus riders and 41,600 Virginia Railway Express riders.
“The bottom line is transit ridership continues to grow regionally, which I think is great,” said Sarah Bagley, the NVTC chair and Alexandria’s vice mayor.
The ridership tallies come as the Virginia General Assembly directed DRPT to study whether to consolidate Northern Virginia’s regional bus systems — ART, CUE, DASH and Fairfax Connector — into a single system.
“That study is looking at what are the costs? What are the benefits? What are the implications of considering potential consolidation?” DRPT director Maria Zimmerman told the commission.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins previously told ALXnow she opposes the potential merger of bus systems.
“Alexandria created DASH in 1984 precisely because a consolidated regional system stopped serving our neighborhoods effectively,” Gaskins said. “We are working closely with DRPT on the evaluation the General Assembly has asked for, and we are confident in what the numbers will show.”
The consolidation study report to the General Assembly is expected in mid-December.
