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40th Anniversary Celebration

40th Anniversary Celebration

OmniRide is celebrating its 40th anniversary! Another year of providing safe and reliable service to our community deserves recognition and celebration. And in honor of our anniversary, we thought we’d stroll down memory lane to commemorate our achievements and milestones and see how far we've traveled on our 40-year journey.

A Look at PRTC Through the Years

The Early Years

  • The inaugural meeting of the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission was called to order on August 6, 1986, at the Log Cabin Restaurant in Stafford County. The primary goal was to establish commuter rail service, or what we know as Virginia Railway Express.
  • In 1990, PRTC assumed responsibility for operating the COMMUTERIDE commuter bus service and ridematching program for car and vanpoolers from Prince William County. 
  • The early 1990s were filled with planning for the Virginia Railway Express and the local bus service that would later be named OmniLink.
  • OmniLink local buses began operating in the spring of 1995 along three corridors. By fall of 1995, OmniLink expanded service, starting two more routes to serve Manassas and Manassas Park.
  • In 1997, the agency moved to the current Transit Center; for the first time, administrative, operational and mechanical functions were under the same roof. New services were established in the late 1990s - Cross County Connector and Prince William Metro Direct.

 

PRTC Grows Up

  • In 2000, OmniLink ridership nearly doubled when the service extended its hours of operation. PRTC's overall average daily ridership surpassed 5,000.
  • In 2000 and 2001, PRTC began the modernization of its fleet with the arrival of 13 new OmniRide commuter buses and 16 OmniLink buses, providing a more comfortable ride for passengers.
  • In December of 2002, OmniRide surpassed a calendar-year record by carrying more than 1 million passengers.
  • In 2003, PRTC's overall average daily ridership surpassed 7,500, fueled in part by the addition of Saturday OmniLink service along three routes.
  • PRTC began accepting SmarTrip cards in 2008.
  • In 2009, PRTC began operating Tysons Express, a direct service between Woodbridge and Tysons Corner funded by Virginia Megaprojects to help mitigate traffic during HOT lane construction. The agency also updated its image in 2009 with a new set of bold, easy-to-read bus-stop signs to replace the faded ones that had been on the streets for more than 10 years.
  • In February 2010, PRTC and VRE welcomed a new member - Spotsylvania County.
  • In 2018, PRTC initiated a rebranding campaign. The commuter service became OmniRide Express, OmniLink became OmniRide Local, Metro Direct became OmniRide Metro Express, the Cross County Connector became OmniRide East-West Express and our ridesharing service went from OmniMatch to OmniRide Ridesharing.
  • In 2019, The organization also began service from the new University lot in Gainesville. Also in that year, OmniRide Access Paratransit service was inaugurated.
  • OmniRide held a groundbreaking on the Western Bus Maintenance and Storage facility in January of 2019. Starting with the June 2021 service change, buses were dispatched from the Western Facility for the first time.

 

Continued Growth and Expansion

  • In 2019, OmniRide launched new services outside the Prince William County area – two new routes from Stafford to Pentagon and Stafford to L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C.
  • The PRTC Board of Commissioners voted to make Local and Metro Express service fare free in February 2020.
  • Most recently, in August 2022 eastern Local and the Prince William Metro Express routes began operating on Sundays.
  • In December 2022, OmniRide Connect Microtransit service was launched in Manassas Park. Microtransit was introduced in Quantico/Dumfries/Triangle in May 2023.
  • Three southern routes originating from Stafford, Falmouth, and Spotsylvania were introduced in December of 2023.
  • The OmniRide Express Monthly Pass was introduced in February 2024 as a new way for OmniRide Express commuters to pay for OmniRide Express fares.
  • In June 2024, OmniRide Access paratransit was introduced on the eastern side of the county, having operated on the western side since 2019.
  • In November 2024, OmniRide launched new Express commuter routes between Front Royal and DC and between Warrenton and DC.
  • In August of 2025, OmniRide reached a milestone of more than 2 million passengers.
  • OmniRide entered an official partnership with the Transit app, improving real-time bus information and offering perks for riders in December 2025.

 

OmniRide’s total ridership (including microtransit and paratransit) for Fiscal Year 2026 (July 2025-June 2026) is 2,532,167. This is the highest ridership the agency has seen since FY2017 and the first time it has exceeded any pre-pandemic year. 

PRTC has come a long way in 40 years of service and anticipates bigger and better changes for the future to meet the needs of our growing community. Here's to 40 more years of service to OUR community!

See Our History in Pictures

Browse through our photo gallery at some memorable images over the past 40 years.