OmniRide will open the Transit Center to the public Wednesday for the first of two 40th-anniversary houses the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission put on the calendar at its Sept. 3 meeting.
The Woodbridge house runs 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 14700 Potomac Mills Road.
Commissioners had 40-year coins and pins on their desks that night. Chair Victor Angry and staff pointed to the September open house as the public date on the fall calendar.
Potomac Local first listed both houses on Aug. 4. The second is 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the Western Maintenance Facility, 7850 Doane Drive in Manassas.
Guests can tour the buildings, look through buses, meet operators and mechanics, and use the food trucks and raffle the agency advertised with that notice.
Who runs it, and where it goes
OmniRide is the operating name for bus and mobility service run by the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission. The commission first met in August 1986. Prince William asked it to take over local commuter-bus and rideshare work in 1991.
PRTC’s six member jurisdictions:
- Prince William County
- City of Manassas
- City of Manassas Park
- Stafford County
- Spotsylvania County
- City of Fredericksburg
Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park pay into the bus system. Stafford, Spotsylvania, and Fredericksburg sit on the commission as VRE partners. OmniRide commuter buses still pick up in those southern localities on grant-funded routes.
Local service
Fixed-route local buses run in eastern and western Prince William and in Manassas and Manassas Park. The network is nine local routes plus the East-West Express that ties Woodbridge to Manassas on Prince William Parkway.
Eastern Prince William examples:
- Route 52 along Route 1 between Woodbridge and Dumfries
- Route 91 Dale City
- Route 92 Lake Ridge to Woodbridge VRE
- Route 94 Lake Ridge to Rippon VRE
Manassas-area examples:
- Route 65 downtown Manassas to the NOVA campus
- Route 67 downtown Manassas to Manassas Park VRE
OmniRide Connect vans take on-demand trips in Manassas Park and in the Dumfries, Triangle, and Quantico area. OmniRide Access is the paratransit service inside three-quarters of a mile of local routes.
Local bus, Connect, and Access have been free to ride since February 2020. The board has kept that policy through June 2027.
Commuter service
OmniRide Express and Metro Express run weekday trips along I-95 and I-66 to job centers in Northern Virginia and Washington.
Pickup country includes Prince William lots in Dale City, Lake Ridge, Woodbridge, Haymarket, and Gainesville; Staffordboro and Falmouth; Spotsylvania; and grant-funded extensions to Front Royal and Warrenton.
Typical destinations:
- Pentagon
- Crystal City
- Rosslyn and Ballston
- downtown Washington and Capitol Hill
- Washington Navy Yard
- Franconia-Springfield Metro (Prince William Metro Express)
- Tysons Metro (Manassas Metro Express)
A recent state count put the commuter side at 17 Express and Metro Express routes. Southern I-95 grant routes added in December 2023 include Stafford-Washington, Falmouth-Pentagon/Rosslyn/Ballston, and Spotsylvania-Pentagon/Washington.
The Wednesday house is at the Woodbridge transit center that still anchors a large share of that local and commuter network.
