DATA Stories: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority by the Numbers

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation sent this bulletin at 11/12/2024 08:00 AM EST

Welcome to the Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s Data Stories, and thank you for signing up! This monthly series aims to find the narrative in data DRPT collects and uses, highlighting Virginia’s rail and transit community. This month, DRPT explores the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA).

WMATA 101

WMATA - or Metro - is a multi-state transit network that serves Virginia, D.C., and Maryland, with subway, bus, and paratransit services. As a system, WMATA is one of the largest public transit services in the entire United States and is the largest in Virginia by some distance. Depending on the year, WMATA’s services in Virginia provide nearly 60% of all public transit trips in the Commonwealth.

First, some minor housekeeping. DRPT collects performance measures from WMATA based on reporting by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission. For the majority of this Data Story, DRPT will use WMATA-Virginia ridership numbers. These are trips that either begin or end in Virginia, and thus do not represent all of WMATA’s total ridership. It will be noted when ridership numbers are Virginia-only, or WMATA systemwide.

WMATA provides three different kinds of services in Virginia: 1) Metrorail, the subway service that operates the colored lines (i.e. blue line) and carries the lion’s share of WMATA’s riders, 2) Metrobus, which functions like a local bus service in Virginia, but with focus on connecting localities with Metrorail stations, and 3) MetroAccess, which provides paratransit to individuals with disabilities in WMATA’s service area. All three services count towards WMATA ridership.

Ridership in Virginia

As noted in the introduction, WMATA is the largest provider of public transportation in Virginia by number of trips. Over the prior five fiscal years (FY 20 through FY 24, or July 1st, 2019, to June 30th, 2024), WMATA provided a cumulative 267 million public transit trips in Virginia, more than half of the 492 million total public transit trips in Virginia over the same time period. The chart below visualizes WMATA’s annual ridership compared to the statewide total:

Like all forms of transit, whether it be driving, flying, or going on a cruise, WMATA and all other public transit providers saw a steep decline in ridership due to the pandemic. Ridership is recovering quickly and, as a previous Data Story noted, WMATA’s ridership in Virginia saw the 2nd highest percentage increase (and by far the largest numeric increase) in ridership over the prior fiscal year.

WMATA provides transportation in D.C. and Maryland as well, and it would be remiss of this Data Story to not note WMATA’s overall system ridership. The graph below breaks down WMATA’s systemwide ridership, comparing Virginia ridership with non-Virginia ridership (note: this is trips that never began or ended in Virginia):

Ridership by Mode

Generally, when people think about WMATA, they are thinking about the Orange, Blue, Yellow, and Silver lines in Virginia. WMATA’s iconic subway system does carry the bulk of its riders and creates the spine of the D.C. region’s public transit network. However, WMATA also runs Metrobus and MetroAccess. MetroBus is no small service, carrying a significant portion of WMATA’s total passengers in Virginia. MetroAccess provides paratransit services, which, due to the nature of whom paratransit serves, has a relatively small ridership. The table below presents the ridership share by mode (or “type”) of transit in WMATA’s system, over the same five fiscal years:

WMATA Ridership (in Millions) by Fiscal Year and Mode

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Bus (Local, Express, Rapid Transit)	12.59	6.92	9.16	11.50	13.56
Subway (Heavy Rail)	66.35	13.68	30.18	44.07	58.64
Paratransit	0.26	0.13	0.17	0.17	0.17

Metrobus Leads Virginia in Bus Trips

Metrorail may provide the bulk of WMATA’s public transit trips, but Metrobus on its own still provides more trips than any other public transportation system in Virginia.

In Fiscal Year 2024 (July 1st, 2023 to June 30th, 2024), WMATA’s bus services provided over 13.5 million trips in Virginia. A prior Data Story noted that GRTC (Richmond) is Virginia’s second largest provider of public transportation, but even GRTC does not provide as many trips as WMATA’s Virginia bus services. GRTC provided 10.8 million trips over the same period.

A Driving Force in Public Transit

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority is a major player in Virginia’s public transportation. With support from DRPT, as well as partners in D.C., Maryland, and the localities in Northern Virginia, WMATA thrives as the largest provider of public transportation in Virginia and one of the largest in the country. WMATA is a gigantic public transportation entity, with an operating budget in the billions, thousands of employees, and hundreds of thousands of daily riders - a single Data Story cannot capture every detail about WMATA and its operations. To find more data on WMATA, check out either DRPT’s Open Data Portal, or visit WMATA’s Open Data Hub.

DRPT’s mission is to connect and improve the quality of life for all Virginians with innovative transportation solutions. The SYIP turns that mission into action, by funding rail and public transportation priorities. With funding from the SYIP, transit agencies across Virginia provide over 10 million trips per month on buses, light rails, and subways. Freight rail programs divert around 14 million trucks from Virginia’s roads and attract hundreds of new jobs. Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.

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