Tag Archives: Washington DC

Rail Photo of the Month: March 2026

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Rohr 1000

Location: Friendship Heights Station, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: September 11, 2002

In just a few weeks, Metrorail will be marking its 50th anniversary.  The first segment of Washington, DC’s subway opened on March 27, 1976 between Rhode Island Avenue and Farragut North.  Lots has changed since then.  Fifty years ago, the Rhode Island Avenue station functioned as a park and ride; none of the current development around the station existed.  The New York Avenue infill station (or Noma-Gallaudet if you prefer the official name) also didn’t exist and wasn’t included in the original system plans, but it was the 7th busiest station in terms of average daily entries in calendar year 2025.  Gallery Place didn’t even open as planned on March 27 due to a lawsuit about the lack of an elevator at the station, and the Capital One Arena (formerly Verizon Center and MCI Center) wouldn’t become a catalyst for development in that neighborhood until two decades after the station opened.  Metro Center as a naming concept for the area around the station was brand new, as the name for the station was established when then General Manager Jackson Graham gave a planner 20 seconds to propose a better name than “12th & G”.  These are just a handful of examples of how Metrorail changed various parts of DC in the past five decades, and additional examples can be found at many of the other 86 stations that have opened in the subsequent five decades.  

The original 1000 Series cars that operated on the Red Line on its inaugural day have all been retired and all but two have been scrapped.  One of the preserved cars is this one, numbered 1000, the “A Car” in the first pair to be delivered to Metro property from Rohr Industries in 1974 (its mate, car 1001, was actually delivered first however).  This photo of car 1000 was taken about 18 months after Metro’s 25th anniversary, when all of the Rohr cars received a plaque on the front of the car indicating they were the original 300 cars to serve the Metrorail system.  

As of this writing, it is not known what Metro plans to do to mark the 50th anniversary of Metrorail’s opening, but I hope they do more than they did for the 50th anniversary of Metrobus in 2023, when the largest celebration seemed to be special headsigns on the buses.  

For more photos of the WMATA 1000 Series railcars, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2026

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Orion V 5711

Location: Wisconsin Avenue at Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Montgomery County Division of Transit Services (Ride On)
Date of Photo: August 1, 2016

In keeping with the “2026 is the new 2016” theme, I am also featuring another photo from 2016 for the Bus Photo of the Month.

Unlike yesterday’s post, today’s post features a vehicle that was at the end of its service life in 2016.  Ride On ordered two sets of 40 foot long Orion V buses.  The first set were diesel buses that arrived in 1999, marking the first time Ride On acquired 40 foot buses directly (the Flxible Metro-Ds and Orion VI/CNGs were secondhand acquisitions).  A set of CNG powered 40 foot Orion Vs arrived the following year.  The CNG variant was retired in 2014, as were most of the diesels.  However, Ride On kept some of the diesel Orion Vs in its “ready-reserve fleet.”  During WMATA’s yearlong “SafeTrack” program that started in mid-2016, segments of the Metrorail system were either single tracked at all times or shut down entirely in order to conduct accelerated track work and system rehabilitation.  During the SafeTrack surges that impacted the Red Line in Montgomery County, Ride On provided free shuttles as an alternative to the reduced train service, and used buses in the ready-reserve fleet to do so.  In this case, one of the 40 foot Orion Vs in the reserve fleet was operating a Red Line shuttle between Grosvenor and Friendship Heights, and I photographed it as it passed through Bethesda.

The Orion V might not be the “prettiest” bus to ever ply the streets of North America, but it was a mainstay in the DC area in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as it was operated not only by Ride On but also WMATA, DASH, Fairfax Connector, and PRTC.  I personally liked them and recall many high speed rides on these buses throughout Montgomery County.  I don’t know if all transit fans liked them as much as I did, but I was certainly sorry to see them go.

For more photos of Ride On’s 40 foot Orion Vs, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: December 2025

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Orion V 2197

Location: 20th Street, NW at Q Street, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: December 5, 2017

A video circulating on YouTube in recent days commented on the homogeneity of WMATA’s bus fleet.  As is frequently the case with such videos, there isn’t much historical context to the claims made in the video, especially if the content creator only recently came to the area in question.  As someone who has spent most of his life in the DC area, I can recall several instances where it seemed the Metrobus fleet was about to be dominated by a single vehicle type, and then something else was ordered to maintain the variety of the fleet.  Even if the purpose of the “different” order wasn’t explicitly to maintain fleet variety, that was the effective outcome.  Admittedly, consolidation among bus manufacturing industry makes it more likely that a single manufacturer would come to dominate a city’s fleet, even for an agency as large as WMATA.  

In short, I can recall when it felt as if the WMATA fleet was on its way to becoming an all Orion fleet, with models such as the Orion V pictured here being a common sight.  Before that, I recall when Flxible was the most common bus on the streets of the nation’s capital.  The point is manufacturers come and go, bus models change and evolve, and the needs of transit agencies change over time.  Just because WMATA’s fleet is nearly exclusively New Flyers at this point doesn’t mean that it will remain that way forever, or that New Flyer is the only manufacturer WMATA is able to order from.  Transit fans with preconceived notions about how things work are usually surprised later.

For more photos of the WMATA Orion Vs, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: June 2025

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New Flyer XDE 7150

Location: Connecticut Avenue, NW at Porter Street, NW, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: May 30, 2025

Could this be the last photo I take of my first “home route”?  It is certainly possible.  As I wrote three years ago, a home route is the route that goes by where you live and therefore take at the start or end of most trips.  For many people, their first home route isn’t one they can necessarily choose, as infants or toddlers have no agency in deciding where to live.  This was certainly the case for me, as my parents lived right at the Van Ness Metro when I was born and we remained there until April 1992.  It was my home route again from November 2017 through November 2023.  

In just a few weeks on June 29, WMATA will launch its redesigned bus network.  For the first time since WMATA’s inception over 50 years ago and when it acquired four formerly private bus operators under the Metrobus umbrella, the DC area bus system is being entirely redrawn to meet the needs of today’s traveling public.  I won’t comment about what I think of some of the changes that will be taking effect at the end of this month, but if you really want to sleuth, they are part of the public hearing record leading up to the Board of Directors approving the redesigned network.  And the new Connecticut Avenue bus, the D70, isn’t going to be all that different than what the L2 does today (though arguably it will have more in common with the old L4 route that hasn’t operated in over a decade).  But this is the end of what I considered to be the first bus I regularly relied on, even if I was a very young child at the time.

Despite all the fretting in advance of these network redesigns, especially with regards to changed route numbers, people end up adjusting.  I lived in Jerusalem when that city’s Route 4 was renumbered to be Route 77 in 2014.  The 4 had been the 4 for longer than the State of Israel had existed at the time.  There was a feeling of “how could such a historic bus route have its number changed?”  But the change went through as planned, people have adapted to the new route number, and I don’t think most Jerusalemites even know where the now current Route 4 operates.  I expect the same to happen in Washington DC.  

For more photos of the WMATA New Flyer XDE40 Buses, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: May 2025

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Gillig Phantom 5409

Location: Montgomery Mall, Bethesda, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Ride On Montgomery County Transit
Date of Photo: July 1, 2003

Eagle eyed observers will notice this is the second Ride On Bus Photo of the Month in as many months, but Ride On is marking a significant milestone right now and therefore it seems worthy of a “repeat” feature.  This month, Ride On is hosting an event to celebrate its 50th anniversary.  The service began in March of 1975 with just two routes serving Silver Spring and Takoma Park.  Ridership almost immediately exceeded projections.  Since then, Ride On has grown to a system of over 80 routes and approximately 350 buses.  

In 2000 to mark its 25th anniversary, Ride On painted two buses silver and anyone who happened to catch one of those buses only had to pay 25 cents to ride instead of the standard fare.  Even after the 25th anniversary promotion ended, the buses would keep their celebratory paint schemes until their retirement.  Ride On would also decorate buses for its 40th anniversary, but there was no special fare promotion associated with them.  

For more photos of the Ride On Gillig Phantoms, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: April 2025

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Photos of the Month are back following parental leave here at Oren’s Transit Page headquarters!  

Orion VII/CNG 5957

Location: Shady Grove Station, Derwood, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Ride On Montgomery County Transit
Date of Photo: March 20, 2009

To go along with yesterday’s post, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight a bus photo from Shady Grove Station.  Shady Grove is definitely a place for bus fans to camp out during rush hours, as the bus bays on the east side of the station are quite busy.  Back in the days when the Ride On fleet was more diverse than it currently is (at present, the fleet is entirely made up of Gillig low floors with the exception of the NOVABus LFSA fleet for the FLASH service on US 29), this was where one would go with the hope of catching one of the “oddballs” in Ride On’s fleet, such as the Flxible Metro-Ds or Orion VI/CNGs.  The only question was which route the bus you were seeking would show up on.  Outside of peak periods, this terminal can be a bit quiet, as many of the routes that serve it only operate during rush hours, but when it is hopping it is a great place for spotting.

My favorite route out of this terminal is the 90, which goes from Shady Grove to the community of Damascus.  This is a great ride, especially with a leadfooted driver.  For much of the trip, it is hard to believe you are still in Montgomery County!  During the midday hours, the bus continues to Milestone, providing connections to other routes to complete your round trip.  During peak periods, the bus terminates in Damascus so one has to come back the way you came.

For more photos of the Ride On Orion VII/CNGs, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: April 2025

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Photos of the Month are back following parental leave here at Oren’s Transit Page headquarters!  

Breda Rehab 3137

Location: Shady Grove Station, Derwood, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: January 15, 2024

The Shady Grove terminal of the Red Line held a number of “superlatives” prior to the opening of the Silver Line in 2014 and its extension to Ashburn in 2022.  Shady Grove was the station furthest from the Washington Monument (as the crow flies), as it lies over 18 miles away.  The station is still the northernmost on the entire Metrorail system, and it isn’t a particularly close competition.  With most of the stations being at least 2 miles apart from each other from Friendship Heights out to Shady Grove, there are many opportunities to see trains reach their maximum speed of 75 MPH along this section of the Red Line.  Although the Breda rail cars, such as the one photographed here, are over 40 years old and were rehabbed about 20 years ago, they still reach this top speed while maintaining a smooth ride.  

For more photos of the WMATA Breda Rehab cars, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: December 2024

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New Flyer XD40 2124

Location: Duke Ellington Bridge, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: District Department of Transportation (DDOT)
Date of Photo: May 4, 2020

At the end of this month, the DC Circulator will cease operations after nearly 20 years of operation.  The service was started in July 2006 on two routes, with the goal of creating an “simple” and “easily navigable” bus system to supplement the existing Metrobus network.  In order to meet these goals, bus routes operated every 10 minutes around the clock on routes that connected major destinations around Downtown DC.  The system grew, often as select Metrobus routes were converted to Circulator operation to take advantage of lower subsidies and operating costs.  A National Mall route was also established following the discontinuation of the Tourmobile service that held the exclusive rights to offer guided tours within that area under a contract with the National Park Service.  

The discontinuation of the service can be attributed to several reasons.  Ridership has not rebounded since the Covid-19 pandemic, but arguably, many Circulator routes do not warrant 10 minute headways from early morning until late night (or 3 AM in the case of select routes on Friday and Saturday nights).  However, changing the headways was considered to be a non-starter on account of wanting the service to remain “simple.”  Furthermore, DDOT wished to have all eight wards of the city served by at least one route, a goal that was never achieved, but some wards simply do not have any activity generators that would warrant the level of service the Circulator committed to providing on all of its routes.

Service is currently running on 20 minute headways on five routes through December 31, 2024.  After that date, RATP DEV, which is the contracted operator for the service, will commence its final wind down procedures, such that the contract can be fully cancelled by March 2025.  

Have you ever taken the DC Circulator?

For more photos of the DC Circulator , please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: October 2024

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Gillig Advantage 4058

Location: Rockville Pike near Wooton Parkway, Rockville, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Ride On (Montgomery County Transit)
Date of Photo: June 21, 2024

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the launch of Ride On Extra in Montgomery County, Maryland.  Ride On Extra is the branded service for Ride On’s “premium” bus routes.  The first route to operate under this banner is Route 101, a limited stop service along MD 355 between Lakeforest and Medical Center.  The trip time on the 101, both advertised and actual, is noticeably shorter than the underlying local service on routes 46 and 55, and depending on the circumstances, can even give the parallel Red Line a run for its money.

Last month, Ride On launched the first two routes of the Great Seneca Transit Network (GTSN), a series of improvements to the transit service in the “Great Seneca Science Corridor”, an area that includes locations such as the Shady Grove Metro, Shady Grove Hospital, Universities at Shady Grove, the Rio Center, and Kentlands.  These two routes have colored names, Lime and Pink; I believe this is to go along with the colored names that are also being used for the “Flash BRT” service that Ride On operates in the Route 29 corridor and will introduce to other corridors in the future.  Unlike the 101, the Lime and Pink operate seven days a week with service frequencies varying between 15 and 30 minutes depending upon the day of the week and time of day.  

Ride On is also engaged in the “Ride On Reimagined” project, which is a network redesign project that may introduce more Ride On Extra routes in the future as well.  It will definitely be interesting to see how Ride On Extra, in conjunction with the Flash BRT and other improvements, will change the transit landscape in Montgomery County.  

For more photos of Ride On’s Gillig Advantage 40 foot buses, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2024

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Orion V 9641

Location: Friendship Heights Station, Chevy Chase, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: June 2000

Since I went way back in the past for the Rail Photo of the Month for August 2024 and chose a photo taken using film from the early days of this website, I thought I would do the same for the Bus Photo of the Month.  There most of what you see in this photo or in the surrounding area has changed in the ensuing 24 years, except for the bus terminal itself.  For starters, the 36 was extended to Naylor Road Station when it opened on January 13, 2001, and was ultimately truncated to Foggy Bottom in August of 2014.  The 1992 Orion V buses would be retired in the early 2000s, though newer Orion Vs would remain in WMATA’s fleet until 2019.

The shopping center seen behind the bus has been renovated twice since this photo was taken.  Although not visible in this photo, Mazza Gallerie was behind and to the left of where I was standing until it was demolished in 2023 to be redeveloped.  What was then a Hecht’s department store was directly to my left when this photo was taken, closed in 2005, and has since been redeveloped into the Shops at Wisconsin Place.  Other projects have also taken place or are ongoing in the general vicinity of the Friendship Heights station.  

Perhaps it also goes without mention, but photography technology has improved significantly since I took this photo, digital photography has been accessible to nearly everyone for many years now, and I’d like to think my photography skills have improved since I took this picture.  What do you think?

For more photos of WMATA’s 1992 Orion V Buses, please click here.