Washington, D.C.'s New Subway Rollout Went Well (Mostly)

There was one big problem with Monday’s weekday debut of Metro’s new Silver Line service, and it had nothing to do with train breakdowns or delays. It involved plain old bus service. The Fairfax Connector timed a major overhaul of its bus service with the opening of the new line, redirecting buses from the Orange Line at West Falls Church to the five new Silver Line stations and creating the county’s busiest bus hub at the new Wiehle-Reston East station.

The county undertook a massive education campaign to inform riders of the changes, including blanketing Metro stations and bus stops last week with information and outreach workers to answer questions.

But come Monday morning, there were still plenty of riders who hadn’t gotten the message and they learned the hard way that their bus routes had changed. In some cases, they waited at stops for buses that never showed up.

“Nobody told me there are no more buses here,” Hamera Tariq, of Reston, said as she waited at West Falls Church for a bus to Reston. “I don’t know where I need to go.”