Free Metrobus Program To Expand For Fairfax County Students

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a new memorandum of understanding with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on Tuesday to expand the county’s free student bus pass program on Metrobus.

Students from Annandale High School, Falls Church High School, Marshall High School and the Davis Center will join students at Justice High School in participating in the free student bus pass program using Metrobus. These expanded options for Metrobus will be available for the 2022-2023 school year.

Students at Justice High School in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County have taken nearly 91,000 Metrobus trips since the start of the program in 2018.

The initial program kicked off in 2015 to provide free student bus passes to middle and high schoolers through the Fairfax Connector. But some schools in Fairfax County are only served by Metrobus. In 2018, the program expanded to provide a select number of Metrobus routes to students at Justice High School.

The free student bus pass program provides much-needed transportation to extracurricular activities, school jobs and internships, libraries, and other recreational activities, according to the county.

For the program, Metrobus access is limited to Northern Virginia routes only and does not include routes that go into in D.C. or Maryland.

WMATA will invoice Fairfax County on a quarterly basis in an amount equal to fare costs for the number of rides taken by students in the previous quarter, according to the memorandum of understanding.

"Both the County and WMATA intend to fully cooperate in the achievement of their common goals, including advancing transit equity by implementing the Free Student Bus Pass Program with replacement of lost revenues and costs to WMATA by the County," the agreement says.