OmniRide doubling service from Gainesville as part of today’s systemwide change

OmniRide today will double the number of buses is has providing service between Gainesville,  Pentagon, and L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C.

The added bus service will depart from the new commuter lot at University Boulevard at Route 29 and Interstate 66 in Gainesville with nine trips, starting at 4:53 a.m. through 7:33 a.m. The buses will serve stops at the Pentagon, 7th and streets in SW Washington, D.C., and M and 9 Streets at Navy Yard.

The route number will change from G200 to 612. In the afternoon, a total of 17 trips will be offered on the route from 12:14 to 7:38 p.m. All but six trips serve University Boulevard Commuter Lot, and all fares are half-price during construction on the I- 66 E-ZPass Express Lanes.

The opening of new E-ZPass toll lanes on I-395 has made it easier for buses to get in and out of the Pentagon bus bay and back onto the highway and into Washington, D.C., allowing for the expanded service at L’Enfant, said OmniRide Executive Director Bob Schneider. Traffic patterns near the bus bay were reconfigured favoring transit buses, he added.

The added service at the University lot will take the pressure off the overcrowded Cushing Road lot, off Balls Ford Road, said Schneider. Today’s changes come on the same day as OmniRide is rolling out its biggest systemwide service change ever, retooling not only commuter routes but also OmniRide local routes (formerly known as OmniLink).

The University lot opened in October as part of the I-66 E-ZPass lanes project. Schneider told members of the OmniRide Commission on Dec. 5 that he has seen the early signs of a slugging system begin to take the route from the lot.

Slugging — the informal system of ride-sharing that allows drivers with three or more occupants in their cars to use the E-ZPass lanes for free, and a mainstay along the I-95 corridor since the 1970s — is new to the I-66 corridor.

Newly expanded OmniRide bus service in Stafford — the first time OmniRide has ever served a jurisdiction outside Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park since its inception in the late 1980s — is taking off.

Routes 543 and 942, from the Staffordboro Commuter lot in North Stafford to Washington, D.C. and the Pentagon, respectively, are running at about 50% capacity. The service is about four weeks old.

“We’re very happy about that,” said Schneider. Fares on these routes are free through Dec. 31.