Bus commuters in Alexandria are now able to ride the Virginia city’s DASH buses for free.
The city made the buses free on Sept. 5 to help as many transit-dependent residents as possible.
According to DASH data, more than 60,000 additional Alexandria residents will gain access to high-frequency service and the accessibility for the city’s low-income residents will go from 29% to over 72%.
Most routes on the new DASH Network are different from the past, although the AT2X — 102X, AT8 — Line 30, AT10 — Line 33 have not changed.
The routes have new route numbers.
The city said that lines 30 to 36 are the core DASH lines. They run seven days per week, all year. Commuter-oriented routes, which are lines 102 to 104, operate on weekdays only.
Some of the major transit corridors that now have more frequent buses include Old Town, Arlandria, Potomac Yard, Parkfairfax, the West End and the King Street corridor.
See the new bus lines and their routes.
The Old Town Circulator runs every 7 to 15 minutes.
The city granted DASH a $1.47 million subsidy increase in its Fiscal Year 2022 budget to pay for the free service.
The changes that started Sept. 5 are the first for bus system since it started in 1984.
The changes are explained in this YouTube video:
WTOP’s Michelle Murillo contributed to this story.