The level of hostility reserved for people who use the bus...Just next level.

Prince William resident here, the only part of this video that surprised me was the driver training shenanigans, I've never seen that on omniride. I often use route 60 (Manassas to Tysons Metro) to get into the city and that route has never disappointed me except for its poor headways outside of rush hour. The only consolation is that it is free, but the driver training on a scheduled bus with more people than I've ever seen on omniride isn't a good idea. I hope this is a good explainer on why the bus is looked down on in the vast majority of the US. I gotta do this sometime for the lolz.

@Mpugs

Ай бұрын

Omniride 60 ftw

@davinp

Ай бұрын

yes that is suprising to see a driver training on a weekend, but at least it was free

@WeathermanJohnBiggs

Ай бұрын

This experience not the norm.

@brianhubert8418

Ай бұрын

This is a prime example of how the U.S. treats the bus and those who ride it.

I think the transit center is located where it is because it's right at the Omniride yard - operationally it's super efficient, but it makes for a pretty crappy rider experience!

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Yeah that makes sense! And of course the car mentality of putting it wherever you can fit a giant parking lot

@tyleralberico9340

Ай бұрын

@@MilesinTransit I could be wrong, but I remember they had a shoestring budget when service started in the 90s, so I think it was a cost savings measure to put everything on the same site

@Mpugs

Ай бұрын

You aren't taking omniride (except maybe local) for the rider experienced but it still has a lot of room for improvement

@davidrivera9743

Ай бұрын

The only other place it makes sense to wait for the Springfield bus is Potomac Mills Mall.

I’ve seen DASH in Alexandria have drivers in training on in service routes. However, the instructors make sure they leave on time and follow the route exactly as a fully trained driver would. Also they only do this with drivers in the final stages of training. They care a lot more about good bus service than PW county does

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

That’s how to do training!

@joehashbrowns7577

Ай бұрын

I’ve seen that on my morning CTA bus quite a bit too, but yeah they’ve always managed to keep everything on time

Truly a random assortment of buses stop at the Franconia-Springfield Metro station.

I regularly used to take Omniride to get around in Manassas, the Eastern local services (Manassas) suffers from lack of ridership on most routes and departures from the courthouse every 90 minutes. Now the Western services in an around Woodbridge have much more ridership and departures in each direction. 96 is the only bus connection between the two areas but suffers from lack of timed connections with the local bus services. Overall it has potential to be a great bus service if they fixed certain issues. Also you got lucky with free fares on the bus since they were supposed to have brought back fares in June but they often tend to postpone bringing back fares (buses have been free since the pandemic)

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

I think this connection would have been great had there been a better connection. It seems silly to make it that long in both directions.

@tyleralberico9340

Ай бұрын

From what I heard, it actually cost more to administer a fare collection system for local service than the fares they actually collected. Crazy!

I did ridership reporting for Omniride last summer and came across a lot of operators that wouldn’t leave on time for seemingly no reason. I asked my supervisor and coworkers what causes something like that they didn’t seem to know why. The biggest thing to note is that Omniride doesn’t actually operate its service, rather they contract out all operations to Keolis. I couldn’t tell you what it’s like now, but the contractor was continually plagued by management issues. I assumed it got better since some higher ups were replaced at the end of when I worked there, so I’m sorry to see this happened to you guys. It’s still nice to see the agency on video, though! I haven’t been back to that office since March.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

I hope none of this made Omniride look too bad. It’s really just an indictment on how neglected suburban transit is.

@tyleralberico9340

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA oh no, I didn’t think you were being negative! You just told it how it was. I figured the (limited) insight I had might explain a little. Thanks for the video!

@AML2000

Ай бұрын

Keolis is 70% owned by SNCF, the national rail company of France. The other 30% is owned by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the investment arm of the Quebec provincial government. So Omnibus is mostly operated by a nationalized French company.

@brianhenderson9124

Ай бұрын

There's a reason my uncle David despises Keolis. They also had, when he retired, the contract for MBTA commuter rail operations.

@tyleralberico9340

Ай бұрын

@@AML2000 and on that note, I’m pretty sure their team only had experience operating rail transit, as VRE contracts their operations to Keolis. Definitely a big learning curve for them if that’s the case. They previously contracted to first transit, but I think Keolis had a significantly lower bid.

I enjoyed this video, so thank you for suffering through omniride. Omniride is a decent service for a car centric county like Prince William. I’m happy it exists and the bus routes especially along I-66 are gaining popularity. Sorry that your experience wasn’t the best.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

I knew going into it it would take a long time! That’s part of the reason why we did it haha

I rarely ride Omniride. I usually ride it when i go to Potomac Mills Mall.

@robertlunderwood

Ай бұрын

Agreed. I only use that when going to Ikea and I don't feel like going to College Park

Very good, positive coverage of a less-than-stellar ride. I admire your patience and tenacity to try everything!

I live in Manassas and I attended the train event. Sorry I didn’t get to meet you guys as I didn’t know you guys existed. Thanks for the video, I enjoyed it.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

lol we’ll forgive you

I'm surprised (well, not really) that there's no local bus connection between Manassas and the rest of the 66 corridor in Fairfax County. It looks like the westernmost Fairfax Connector routes end in Centreville. It would be nice for the two counties to work out some service so that people could ride directly to Dulles, Fair Oaks Mall, and Vienna Metro at all hours. The fact that you had to go all the way to Woodbridge is insane.

@dodge1515

Ай бұрын

I agree, just extend FFC routes to Downtown Manassas.

Thank you for this fascinating video ! I had guessed your bus rides would be slow, and your stoicism is to be admired. The fact that both rides were free is amazing, and the 2#dollar fare from Franconia truly staggering - a comparable journey on a European Metro would be at least double that fare. Whilst admiring your stoicism, I have to question why on earth you two didn’t imbibe in a nearby bar, and await the fine special VRE train ? As you say, that train would have got you back to DC at about the same time as your slow bus ride ! Cheers !

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

To be fair, it all took much longer than scheduled. Plus, this was an extreme route we’d always wanted to try!

Buses are awesome! :) You get to meet/see very curious individuals. Like the guy in the pink shirt grooming his hair while you were recording.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

And they got off at Foggy Bottom too…

I wanted to go the train fest (as its like 5 minutes driving for me) but I was out of town. I've always been meaning to take and make a video about the omniride routes you've shown here but you beat me to it haha. I really wish the frequency was better for their local and express services because I would definitely utilize it! Anyways thanks for making this video. Ive been a fan since a friend of mine shared me one of your videos. I think it was the abandoned west falls church bus terminal video. Also, that roundabout you passed is probably our first real roundabout if I'm not mistaken. That Grant Ave roundabout has been a controversial topic in the local facebook groups I'm in, but I am glad that it's in place. The road deserves the road diet. (it used to be 4 lanes wide)

Can’t believe Thom was at the transit center in the middle of nowhere for more than 30 minutes for a 40 minute transfer. I thought you were better than this. Also, this whole video feels like a Miles in Transit cheapest way video.

What an awesome adventure you two had!!! The buses seemed awesome as well!!! Very interesting video!!!

Wawa if you can, Scheetz if you have to.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Love this

I am glad you enjoyed the train fest. I drove down from Alexandria and it was a cool little festival

Ouch taking a wrong turn while training. That's kind of scary. 3 hours to go thirty miles. Ouch that's trafficgedon in LA.

We need to bring back the interurban from DC to Annapolis ! Annapolis was the only state Capitol In the USA that did not have train service in the days of rail only . It did have an interurban from both Baltimore and DC. Baltimore line has light rail on part of it near Glen Burnie . Annapolis line not used .

Buses 🚌 Are Awesome 👌 Just Like Trains 🚆 😀 Outstanding Video Thank You 😊

Love it, keep them coming if you can, thanks for sharing

Thanks for the video. Too bad you had to experience driver training. Did Omniride let passengers know beforehand that training was going on? You should have hung around Manassas for a while and then traveled back on VRE or AMTRAK. We have some great restaurants and a brewery (Sinistral). I like Omniride. However, I drive to a commuter lot to take an express bus to Ballston (route 622). Route 60, Tyson's Metro Express, is a closer route for me to take, but I would have to transfer from bus to rail; therefore the commute would take longer. Growing up in eastern Pennsylvania, I like Wawa. However, Sheetz is good too; for their hotdogs. I am glad Wawa is in VA. I go there often to fill my car and my belly. 🙂

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

No, they never said anything. Which is why the experience was so unfortunate.

I'm certain they do passengerless training, but at a certain point they do have to start taking passengers.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

But do you need to make several loops around the transit center when you’re already 20 minutes late?

I really hope they can improve. Eventually more people will start moving to Prince William (and Loudon but they have a different Bus tranist) as Fairfax County/City, Arlington, and Alexandria starts to become way too dense and expensive.

@mrvwbug4423

Ай бұрын

Depends on the election. If a certain someone wins the election he's going to decimate the federal workforce. Expect more than 50% of federal workers and contractors to be laid off before the end of 2025. DC Metro area will become a ghost town

Does Bryce have his own channel? He's awesome on camera

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

He doesn’t unfortunately

@brycebundens6866

Ай бұрын

I’m flattered😄

Man that was quite an adventure alright! That seems like a nice looking bus system I’m not sure I’ve heard of before, but it would be worth a try someday.

You definitely don't see drivers in training on scheduled services on RTD here in Denver, they run special training buses for drivers to learn their routes. They certainly pay them decently here, bus drivers start at $28/hr and light rail train operators start at $31/hr, commuter rail engineers are paid even more, but a contractor operates the commuter rail so the pay scales are not public.

Wow Ommiride still uses the older buses. Looks like an early 2000-2010s vehicle made by Gillig. Most transit agencies I know use like New Flyer/late 2010s Gillig/NABI buses alike

@dodge1515

Ай бұрын

Yeah, their newest standard Advantages are from 2016.

So I thought I’d give a little clarification on the training situation. I’ve been a bus driver and now a Supervisor for 20 years. So all agencies do about the same process. The trainee on your bus is not actually learning how to drive a bus. That would be a strict no no. When a trainee learns the actual mechanics of driving a bus that is done with no passengers on board for obvious safety reasons. Once they pass their road test and prove to the safety and training department that they are ready for the road they become the trainee that was on your bus. What you saw is what we call cadeting or route training. It’s impossible that this is done with passengers so that they not only learn the rights and lefts of the route but they get practice interacting with passengers and we as the instructors can see that they are truly ready to be on their own before releasing them to revenue service. As to the 15 minute delay I myself would have informed everyone as to the reason for the delay and how long it would be. It was weird the loop around the station but I don’t work for Omniride so I’m not sure what that was all about.

That's the difference between city bus transit and county bus transit. We normally do driver training on a weekday, that wasn't normal. Weekday travelers wouldn't put up with that as they gotta get to work..

Omnibus is Prince William County's bus system. Keolis North America operates VRE trains and Omnibus. I've seen an Omini bus at VRE's Woodbridge station. The Woodbridge station has a nice parking garage and a store like the Alexandria station. I live in Woodbrige and take the VRE from Woodbridge to DC to go to work

Very funny video, and for omniride, it should do is look at New Jersey Transit because they still have a frequent suburb to city. Keep in mind some Routes have Monday to Saturday Express services 114X to Bridgewater Commons 165X/168X to Paramus

wow the purple shirt guy also got off at foggy bottom

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

I know right?

5:22 there are toilets that look like that (at least on the outside) in Madrid, but their doors are curved like on some trains. Didn't have an unfavorable experience with it (might cost, I forget)

totally understandable to not want to wait until 20:30 for NE Regional #66. On Saturdays towards D.C. it's just that, Crescent #20, and NE Regional #156 (both in the noon hour)!

Those buses look a lot like the ones in Worcester

Looks fun.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

It was definitely quality time lol

That is unfortunate that there are limited public transportation options on the weekend in the suburbs. I-95 traffic can be heavy on the weekends. A problem operating on freight rail lines is that the freight company (CSX) limits when VRE trains can operate and unfortunately there are only 2 tracks,

I'm from Pittsburgh. Wawa is awful. Go to Sheetz.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

AND SO IT BEGINS

@brycebundens6866

Ай бұрын

DISAGREE!!!!!!

@davidrivera9743

Ай бұрын

@@robertlunderwood that's why. Until Sheetz comes to North Jersey we won't get to compare the two.

@VictorKidd53

Ай бұрын

Ewwww ya nastyyyy hehehehe waaaawaaaaa all the way!!! But seriously, I like both for their own particular thing!

@robertlunderwood

Ай бұрын

@@davidrivera9743 Sheetz will not be in North Jersey. You need to travel to Sheetz territory to enjoy it.

Wawa all the way! Makes me think of Philly, which makes me miss soft pretzels.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Is a soft pretzel just a big pretzel like they sell at carts?

@shigemorif1066

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA Yes, that’s the one! The Philly ones from the carts are kind of square. Different from the NYC kind. They sell a version of it as Wawa that is pretty good.

"Its time for part 2, leaving!"

So cool bus ride in Virginia

That is silly to train a new bus driver without announcing it to the bus load of passengers who have places to go. You're right, with all that time in between rides, do it then. Also, Wawa is superior to Sheetz.

@brycebundens6866

Ай бұрын

THATS RIGHT!!! GO WAWA!!!

@AssBlasster

Ай бұрын

I liked them way better than any other gas station, like RaceTrac, when they came to Florida.

I love this style. Although it is similar to the videos from that guy from Boston. Haha!

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

You mean a vlog?

I enjoyed the video👍👍

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

I'm glad!

Northwest Pennsylvania here Sheetz ain’t bad here 😊

Wow what an odyssey. It is sad to see how our country treats bus services and riders. I hope with the purchase on the Manassas Line VRE Could move more to a 7 days a week Regional Rail model. Maybe perhaps they could use these suburban bus routes as shorter feeders into VRE stations helping to make both systems more useful.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Weekend VRE service starting hopefully this winter!

@brianhubert8418

Ай бұрын

Awesome!! That’s great!!

Thanks Thom!! Wish it would have been better for you.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

It’s okay, it was an adventure!

@mikecarrington4297

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA I like that

3:40 They build a roundabout in the US? How did that devilish thing got there? JK, I am happy our friends across the ocean starting to adopt them as well. Is that one a unicorn or are there more of those comming? And thanks to Thom for another entertaining and educational training. Gave me a well needed break from work and study...

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

DC itself is full of roundabouts! Only problem is, they all have traffic lights and make traffic much, much worse.

@Thommygun-qv7um

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA Why? That defeats the whole purpose of that thing.... Mythbusters have provon that americans are able to adapt to them...

Wawa! ❤

Why not both? Sheetz and Wawa, that is. And OmniRide's current naming scheme was introduced during the pandemic. That east-west express you rode on? Before the pandemic, it was the Cross County Connector. And it seems PRTC has taken delivery of new buses since I moved from there. Oh, and I now have family in Woodbridge. My aunt and uncle who had been living in Annapolis for most of my life now live there, not far from the VRE station. I'll be visiting them as part of a tour "back east" around Labor Day weekend. And yes, I will be filming, so be on the lookout for that and other videos from the aforementioned weekend starting mid-September.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

I’m team both as well haha

@robertlunderwood

Ай бұрын

@@brianhenderson9124 You must not be from Pennsylvania. It's PA's biggest rivalry.

@brianhenderson9124

Ай бұрын

@@robertlunderwood I'm originally from Northern VA, so you got me there. My point stands, however.

their is no intercity buses between nanassa and washington. .

This video is sad and depressing….Unfortunately the abysmal state of public transport is not even a top-10 issue for the Americans right now. So yay, happy 4th of July everyone….😢

Cool video

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Thanks!

@paulcastillo1310

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA your welcome

You could experience exactly the same situation in Germany. Maybe, a bicycle would habe been more reliable?

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Perhaps, though maybe not in this heat

@mrvwbug4423

Ай бұрын

E-bike would certainly have gone 30 miles in less than 3 hours haha.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

@@mrvwbug4423 I’m not biking for 3 hours in this heat lol

Unfortunately, I think the 30-minute wait time limit is most likely to deter homeless people from sheltering there. I agree hard to enforce a rule like this but most likely it is reserved to police an already vulnerable population not commuters.

So is that bus a regional bus or a greyhound?? is it part of D.C. transit or State transit?

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

It’s part of Omniride. Also known as the Potomac and Rappahanock Transit Commission.

Bus drivers train with passengers at their final stages of training iirc, but this was clearly not that. Still great coverage of a less than pleasant ride. (Also if you have the time for buses I'd love to see more "bus reviews" of DC, especially weird bus routes.)

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

I’m planning a whole series on weird DC bus routes!

Kwik Trip (not Qwik Trip) is elite

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Agreed

There needs to be improvement to the commuter service in this part of Maryland, maybe something along the lines of GO Transit, as mentioned by Thom in another video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/pYl92pKDo9jAms4.html

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Great points, except that this is in Virginia…

@Neville60001

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA, my bad, sorry, I should have checked the video again, thanks for correcting me.

OMG purple shirt's hair.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

They were a pair, that’s for sure

that notice about 30 minutes of waiting isnt for you. its so they can kick out homeless people who are using the shelter as shelter. without that they could claim they are waiting for a bus. they continue to criminalize homelessness, rather than putting that effort into fixing the cause of the issue.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Yeah and the Supreme Court just gave them the green light

Me ov: "oh f*ck I am late"

Buses are awesome also but the service is bad with one bus every hour and a half.

So the bus stop is next to the prison

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Yes it is

@moistkiteproductions95556

Ай бұрын

Well it's actually located behind the courthouse but it is next to a detention center

@Trainsaregreat365

Ай бұрын

@@moistkiteproductions95556 I see

Trains are awesome, but ummm buses are NOT. How could you, Thom??? how could you!!! I guess my hatred for buses goes back to when most of Philly's trolleys were busified, and I hated it. Bleh!!

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Eh trolleys over buses all day any day but we make do with what we have

No expense spared on those breeze block toilet 🚽 buildings!

3:16 Why would the driver close the plastic barrier like the Covid days? Being a single door bus, it’s a lot of effort to open and close the barrrier to let people on and off. It doesn’t make a lot of stops I guess that’s okay. I have seen transit systems already removed that plastic nowadays.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

Probably just to not get harassed or something

@mrvwbug4423

Ай бұрын

It protects the driver from unruly passengers.

The god that protects fools and little children keeps things from becoming a complete disaster!

Thom, what’s the story on the bus being free? Also I hope you reported your story to PRTC.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

It was a Covid era thing that just stuck. I guess the cost of collecting fares was already pretty high.

@dccavalier

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA ok. So this is a video from a few years back. I am a retired Metro Transit guy so I’m always interested whenever you do videos on local transportation in the DMV.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

@@dccavalier no, this is a video from 32 days ago.

@dccavalier

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA I thought when you said Covid era it was a few years back. So they still have free? By the way, as far as I know Alexandria’s DASH bus system is still free for now which can be interesting when DASH and Metro use same bus stop location as Metro is NOT free.

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

No problem, I said “it was a Covid era thing that just stuck.”

Thanks for suffering for our entertainment - is Omniride free on weekends as part of social provision by local government? \m/

@Thom-TRA

Ай бұрын

The Omniride local routes are always free, it’s the weekday commuter buses into the city that charge fares

@officialmcdeath

Ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA that implies that the locals are intended to feed the core commuter routes - fascinating \m/