Bus hub · Union Station deck · Better Bus Network
Washington’s bus layer did something rail could not: Metrobus carried 118.8 million trips in 2025 and then rewrote its own map — the Better Bus Network of June 2025 eliminated 500+ stops, renamed routes and added new connectors like the A29 Alexandria–downtown link. Intercity coaches dock at the Union Station bus deck, one level above the Metro, keeping DC’s cheapest arrivals inside its grandest station.
The Better Bus Network is the most consequential US bus redesign since Houston’s 2015 rewrite: more than 500 stops cut, routes renamed for legibility, frequencies concentrated where ridership actually is, and new connectors — December 2025’s A29 linking Alexandria to downtown — filling gaps the rail network leaves open. The bet is the industry standard: fewer stops, faster trips, more riders per service dollar.
Early ridership supported it: bus trips ran ahead of budget all fiscal year, contributing to WMATA’s 16%-above-projection FY2025 total and $462 million in passenger revenue. In a region where the federal commute is structurally smaller, the bus network — cheaper to flex than rail — is where WMATA is buying back ridership.
Above the Red Line, Union Station’s bus deck is the region’s intercity coach gateway: Greyhound, Megabus and premium operators load a level above the Metro, beside Amtrak’s concourse — the only American station where a $20 coach seat, a $200 Acela fare and a $2.25 Metro ride stack vertically in one building.
The TIO framing: DC’s bus economy is two stories of the same building. The street story is the Better Bus Network buying frequency with stop cuts; the deck story is intercity coaches quietly absorbing the budget end of the Northeast Corridor that Amtrak’s record fares price out. Watch whether the A29-style connectors keep adding riders post-redesign — and whether coach volumes rise through America250 as the cheapest seat into the capital’s biggest summer.
The TIO Read: Washington’s bus hub is the series’ most underrated transit asset — 119 million trips a year, a freshly redrawn network, and an intercity deck stacked above the second-busiest Amtrak station in the country. The Better Bus Network is the story to track: cutting 500 stops is unpopular for a year and compounding thereafter if the frequency gains hold. The coach deck matters more than it looks — as Acela fares climb with record ridership, the budget Northeast Corridor migrates to the bus deck, and DC is the terminus where that migration lands. Watch FY2026: if Metrobus holds 120M+ after the redesign’s honeymoon, the map rewrite worked; if it fades, the 500-stop trade becomes a political problem.
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