OmniRide considers adding local bus routes in heavily-populated eastern Prince William

Transportation officials in Prince William are looking at altering and adding new service to some of the county’s busiest local bus routes.

At its public meeting on Thursday, July 9, OmniRide will ask PRTC commissioners for permission to study, and to take public comments on a plan to increase the number of local bus routes it has in the Woodbridge, Lake Ridge, and Dumfries areas from four to seven. The transit agency, which already services the Route 1, Dale Boulevard, and Old Bridge Road corridors with regular local bus service, seeks to add more bus stops in more places.

Residents have long requested OmniRide Local Bus (formerly OmniLink) service in the area along Route 234, between a Target store at Fortuna Center Plaza and Route 1 in Dumfries. It’s one of the multiple activity centers OmniRide will review when considering adding new bus routes.

“Activity centers are defined as where people gather, and we want to make sure we’re servicing these areas,” said OmniRide Director of Strategic Planning Chuck Steigerwald.

Local bus ridership is heaviest on the eastern side of the county compared with the center of the county, where OmniRide operates local bus routes in Manassas, between the county courthouse and Northern Virginia Community College, and in Manassas Park.

On Thursday, OmniRide will ask for permission from its governing body, the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission, to conduct a study to determine which changes would be made.

Steigerwald said there would be multiple opportunities for the public to comment on the matter. Stakeholders like Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center and the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus would need to be consulted, as each of these activity centers would be affected by any changes.

If bus routes in eastern Prince William County are changed, it will represent the first significant change in the bus routes in the past 25 years. In December, the transit agency instituted what it called “revolutionary” changes to its system by replacing the names of bus routes, like “cross-county connector” and “Metro Express” with numbers. It also changed the main transfer point for its local buses in the Manassas area from Manassas Mall to the Prince William County courthouse in Downtown Manassas.

A similar change could come to Woodbridge, as OmniRide explores the possibility to relocating the main transfer point on the eastern side of the county from its transit center at 14700 Potomac Mills Road in Woodbridge to a new 5001,400-space commuter parking garage to be built at the nearby Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, behind a Wegman’s grocery store. The new parking garage is expected to be a hub of activity for those who take commuter buses, but also rideshare and vanpool.

“The whole idea is to reduce travel times,” said Steigerwald.

Any changes would be phased in over the next 10 years. Thursday’s meeting will be held virtually and will begin at 7 p.m.

The transit agency is also looking into adding paratransit services on the eastern side of Prince William County. The service would be similar to something offered by Metro to riders in Washington, D.C. region, including in neighboring Fairfax County. It would pick-up passengers who have been certified disabled and provide them rides to their destinations or connect them with regular transit services.

OmniRide launched a paratransit pilot program in December to serve residents who live in Manassas and Manassas Park. Ridership has been low due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the pilot program will be extended beyond its original end date from September to December, Steigerwald said.

The paratransit service differs from the old “deviation” policy that used to be in place on OmniLink buses, where riders could call ahead and request the bus travel up to three-quarters of a mile from the regular bus route to pick up a passenger.

The paratransit service is also different from a pilot program OmniRide is still trying to get off the ground in Gainesville: An Uber rideshare-like service that would pick up passengers at their homes and drop them off at commuter lots to catch the next commuter bus to Washington, D.C.

“We have the funding in place for the program, but we’re still working to get it off the ground,” said Steigerwald.

If OmniRide decides to keep paratransit services in the Manassas area, it could wind up costing $500,000 per year to operate. Steigerwald could not provide an estimate on the cost to run such a service on the more populated eastern side of Prince William County, but he did concede expenses would most likely be higher.