As DASH Bus reels from a $3.3 million overspending error in the last fiscal year, the Alexandria transit agency is considering service changes to mitigate current budget challenges.
On Wednesday (Oct. 14), the DASH Board of Directors pre-authorized a package of service cuts. The changes are intended to address a $2.4 million shortfall in the current operating budget.
A key Alexandria leader wants the planned Route 7 bus rapid transit (BRT) network to serve as a statewide transportation blueprint.
Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley said the Tysons to Alexandria BRT initiative represents a “landmark project” others will be able to learn from.
Hundreds of families have found relief after Alexandria City Public Schools reinstated school bus routes to neighborhoods across the city.
The new routes went into effect today (Oct. 5). ACPS approved 183 appeals and denied 138 appeals. In all, the school system found that 456 students are newly eligible for bus service, with routes returned in Arlandria, the West End and Old Town.
Alexandria City Public Schools started responding to families wanting school buses to return to their neighborhoods last week, and any eligible students will be able to ride on a bus starting by Monday, Oct. 5.
That was the message relayed to the Alexandria City School Board last Thursday night (Sept. 24) by Clinton Page, the school system’s chief accountability and research officer. Page said that ACPS started sending out their decisions on walk zone requests on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and will respond to all families by Wednesday, Sept. 30.
Alexandria City Public Schools staff are evaluating potential road hazards across the city this week as families await answers on how they can get school buses returned to their neighborhoods.
That was the message relayed at Monday night’s (Sept. 14) Joint City Council and School Board Subcommittee meeting. With a looming Sept. 30 deadline to respond to parent requests to reinstate bus service, city and ACPS staff laid out a process of evaluating public complaints.
Amid a surge of complaints, Alexandria City Public Schools says it will respond to requests to reinstate bus routes by the end of the month.
The school system is under fire for its new walk zones associated with new school boundaries. In the city’s heavily Latino neighborhood of Arlandria, a number of parents complained to the Alexandria City School Board on Thursday night (Sept. 10) that the changes have left kids without school buses in unsafe areas.
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.
Families are decrying new walk zones for Alexandria City Public Schools, saying the changes force their children off school buses to walk along unsafe roadways.
A number of parents denounced the walk zones during the public comment period at the Alexandria City School Board meeting on Thursday night (Aug. 27). ACPS provides bus transportation for students living more than a mile from their elementary schools and more than a mile-and-a-half from Alexandria City High School.
Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins has joined other local leaders in opposing a potential merger of bus operations across multiple Northern Virginia localities.
Gaskins told ALXnow she is strongly opposed to the idea that Alexandria’s free DASH bus system should merge with Arlington Transit, the Fairfax Connector and CUE (City of Fairfax). Between now and November, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is compiling a report as part of the recently adopted biennial budget to consider cost savings and rider impacts of merging the local bus systems.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, on Thursday (July 9) unanimously approved a $15 million allocation toward the Duke Street Transitway Project.
With the allocation, NVTA has funded $102 million for the $102.5 million project, which will add more than four miles of bus rapid transit lanes along Duke Street between the King Street-Old Town Metro station and the city’s border with Fairfax County near the former Landmark Mall site. The project has been in the works for years and is in the design phase. The estimated completion date for the new lanes is Dec. 31, 2029.
Alexandria is seeking more than $36 million to fund two transportation projects as part of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority‘s six-year program.
The total funding amount in NVTA’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026-2031 Six Year Program is $1.265 billion. Alexandria’s share includes $15 million for bus rapid transit improvements in the second phase of the Duke Street Transitway, and $21.86 million for pedestrian and bicycle improvements at Eisenhower Avenue and S. Van Dorn Street. NVTA adopts its six-year program every two years, allocating regional tax revenues to multimodal transportation projects.
