OmniRide aims to have new commuter bus service ready by I-66 commuter lot opening

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — The Virginia Department of Transportation is building new commuter lots as part of the Interstate 66 toll lanes project.

The first new lot is being built near the intersections of I-66 and Route 15 in Gainesville, will have 200 available spaces and is scheduled to open in early 2019.

The I-66 toll lanes project dubbed  “Transform 66 Outside the Beltway” aims to reconfigure the highway, from Haymarket to the Capital Beltway, into a multimodal corridor that moves more people, provides drivers with more reliable trips, and offers new travel options.

As a result of this, the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) will open a new express bus route from Haymarket to the Rosslyn-Ballston area in Arlington. This new route will provide four morning, and four evening trips and serve five bus stops in Arlington.

Currently, there are no direct transit options for commuters in Haymarket. An OmniRide bus serves the Cushing Road commuter lot on Balls Ford Road near Manassas, r and another OmniRide Metro Direct bus ferries commuters to and from the Linton Hall Road corridor to the Tysons Corner Metro station.   

With the new Gainesville commuter lot opening early next year, OmniRide officials say commuter bus service is needed there sooner than later. The route will be funded initially through local gas tax revenues. Later, the cost of the new commuter bus service could be funded by revenues collected from tolls on I-66 inside the Capital Beltway. 

OmniRide must apply to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission to receive those funds.

“It’s not 100 percent guaranteed it will be approved, but considering the demand for services, our track record of success, and the impact of traffic congestion reduction we are confident the project would score very well and be approved,” said OmniRide Executive Director Bob Schneider.

OmniRide earlier this year received NVTC funding for a new Uber-like service designed to pick up commuters at their doorstep and take them to commuter lots in western Prince William to board commuter buses. 

The Transform 66 Outside the Beltway Project is a private-public partnership between VDOT, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), and a private partner I-66 Express Mobility Partners — a European-based a consortium of Spanish multinational company Ferrovial; a subsidiary, Cintra, global investment and asset management firm Meridiam, and construction firm Allan Myers, delivering $3.7 billion of transportation improvements in the I-66 corridor.

The project is scheduled for completion in December 2022.