Montgomery County unveils Ride On Reimagined plan to nearly double bus service hours, add 19 flex zones

Montgomery County transportation officials on Sept. 9 briefed the Transportation and Environment Committee on Ride On Reimagined, a county-led proposal to reshape the Ride On bus network to improve all-day access and speed for residents.

Tom Conklin, Director of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, introduced the briefing and framed the effort as a multi-year, coordinated initiative alongside WMATA’s bus redesign. "This is a meeting of the Transportation and Environment Committee, and we have 1 item on our agenda today," the committee chair said at the start of the session. Conklin and county staff emphasized that the briefing previews a draft final report that will be published later in the month.

Nat Greer, project manager for VHB, the county’s consultant on the effort, described the plan’s structure and objectives. "This is the vision. This is a long term vision," Greer said, adding that the study looks beyond peak commutes to all-day mobility needs such as medical appointments, shopping and weekend jobs. The Vision Network would be anchored by planned Bus Rapid Transit corridors and the Great Seneca Transit Network and would be complemented by express routes and two kinds of flex service: fixed-flex routes (a fixed spine with a flexible neighborhood leg) and microtransit flex zones.

Officials said the Vision Network would substantially increase service hours: planners reported current Ride On revenue hours are just over 100,000 and the long-term vision target is just over 2,000,000 revenue hours — roughly a doubling of service hours countywide. Conklin and Phil McLaughlin (General Manager, Division of Transit Services) clarified the fiscal implications: the principal cost driver is operator service hours rather than a proportional one-for-one increase in the fleet.

The county highlighted performance and equity impacts in planning materials. Greer summarized modeled access gains, saying the plan would increase the number of jobs reachable within 30 minutes, with a cited example that weekday morning access to jobs could rise by about 74% for the general population and about 81% for minority populations under the proposed network. The consultants said much of the accessibility benefit would come from higher-frequency corridors and the expansion of service spans to include more weekend and midday hours.

WMATA coordination and localized adjustments were a key focus. Staff walked members through how WMATA’s proposed renumbering and route simplifications (e.g., M series corridors) interleave with Ride On changes. Staff flagged one notable potential local impact: WMATA’s draft Year 1 proposal would discontinue the Z2 north of Randolph Road, reducing service on New Hampshire Avenue. County staff proposed a local fixed-flex replacement (presented as the 918 fixed-flex concept) to preserve connectivity between White Oak/Olney and transit hubs while adding a flex component for lower-density areas.

Council members pressed staff on implementation details. The committee chair asked whether the reported increase referred to hours or budget; Conklin answered that revenue hours are the primary metric tied to operating cost and that capital cost grows mainly with specific BRT projects. McLaughlin noted that some capital costs — for example, buses included with BRT projects — would be funded within those projects. The team said the Year 1 package is intended to be largely resource-neutral and that larger vision elements would be phased across multiple years.

Council members also probed flex operations and reliability. Phil McLaughlin explained that existing small flex pilots (Wheaton/Glenmont and Rockville) showed average wait times of roughly 8–10 minutes with current vehicle allocations, and that dispatch software is intended to cluster trips and permit pre-booked runs to improve efficiency. On school service, staff said planners tried to ensure that nearly all high schools would be within the proposed coverage ("all or all but one," the team said) and that where daily patterns (e.g., after-school dismissals) are predictable, the county could schedule dedicated or larger-vehicle trips rather than relying solely on ondemand microtransit.

Bus stop amenities and ADA access drew questions as well. Council members urged faster improvement of shelters and accessible stops; staff said the county has an ongoing bus stop improvement program, is conducting ADA assessments, and is constrained in some locations by property availability and owner cooperation. Staff also noted WMATA is evaluating a large-scale stop consolidation as part of its redesign; county staff said they had reviewed WMATA’s proposed stop changes and included a baseline inventory of sidewalk/shelter/lighting conditions in their work.

Officials stressed that the plan is a "living document" and will be refined as WMATA finalizes its proposals and as public comment is absorbed. The county proposed phasing packages of changes so neighborhoods are not subject to piecemeal annual edits and so operational impacts can be managed. Staff also said key components — like Veirs Mill BRT segments and the GSTN backbone — are major drivers of service and access improvements.

Next steps: staff said a final Ride On Reimagined report will be published later in the month, additional briefings will follow as implementation planning advances, and Year 1 changes are expected to roll into the FY26 planning horizon. The committee adjourned after staff and members exchanged closing remarks.

Sources: Montgomery County Transportation and Environment Committee briefing on Ride On Reimagined, Sept. 9, 2024; presentation slides and staff remarks as read into the record.