Rosemont, Parkfairfax, and North Ridge residents could get the short end of the stick as DASH looks to scale back bus service in those neighborhoods.
A memo from Martin Barna, director of Planning and Scheduling for DASH, said the city’s bus system could reduce service on Line 104. Barna wrote that the change is based on the City Manager’s Draft FY 2025 budget.
Line 104 runs from the Braddock Road Metro station to the Pentagon Metro station.
Service would be reduced on Line 104 from every 30 minutes to once every hour. Barna said the change is likely to significantly decrease ridership.
According to the memo:
This reduction would reduce annual operating costs by $180,000, but would have an adverse impact on commuters in Parkfairfax, North Ridge and Rosemont. It also runs counter to the goals and recommendations of the 2022 Alexandria Transit Vision (ATV) Plan and Alexandria Mobility Plan (AMP). In general, fixed-route bus service that only runs once every 60 minutes is not considered to be useful or reliable, and ridership is likely to decrease by a large margin as riders seek other alternatives.
At the same time, there are other potential service improvements included in the memo, though they’re considered unfunded improvements:
- Line 32 – DASH is proposing to improve midday, evening and weekend headways from every 60 minutes to every 30 minutes.
- Line 34 – DASH is proposing to improve Sunday headways from every 60 minutes to every 30 minutes.
- Line 31 – DASH is proposing to improve midday, evening and weekend headways between King Street Metro and Braddock Road from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes by extending all Line 31 short trips that currently operate between NVCC-Alexandria and the King Street Metro.
The changes are scheduled for review at the Transportation Commission meeting on Wednesday, March 20.
