DC Metro and Bus Reviews

DCMetroandBus is fantastic, until suddenly there’s no data. This has happened multiple times when tracking the T2 bus from my home in Bethesda southbound to Friendship Heights, and northbound from Friendship Heights towards my home in Bethesda. “WMATA reporting no data” appears on the screen. So frustrating. Makes an otherwise fantastic app completely useless.

Several times in Friendship Heights, my bus is tracked by DCMetroandBus , and I time my arrival at the stop for 10 minutes before the bus is predicted to arrive. A few minutes after my arrival, that bus disappears from DCMetroandBus and the next bus (which is to arrive 30 or so minutes later) is the only one showing up on DCMetroandBus ! What happened? Did my bus show up early? No, about 8 minutes later, my bus shows up at the stop (not on DCMetroandBus ), and the driver is oblivious to the problem. (There is also the additional problem that buses show up at the stop with Not In Service on their displays, and you have to ask the driver to identify their bus— super annoying). I want to do right by the environment by using public transportation, but WMATA and DCMetroandBus have not ironed out the kinks.

Because the feedback mechanism does not work in DCMetroandBus ....

App interface is really messy and it makes it hard to use. The workflow is also not accommodating to the regular scenario for the new and current user.

Consider that the Apple Maps app opens to a map. It tells you where you are and helps you get to where you want to go. The interface is simple, clean, effective. It uses progressive disclosure to bury the “additional information”. Isn’t Metro an app that users use to find out how to get to their destination in the same manner, simply focused on the use of metro services?

Suggest that DCMetroandBus should simply open to a map with the flags showing where I am and where the bus stops are. Everything else should be a drill down. The search at the top of the map display should be the drill down for locations giving priority to metro routes . Like the maps app, an expansion below could show other options. Maps shows a fast nav menu for restaurants, etc. metro could do something similar and show stops, initially organized by distance from user.

And if Advertizing is necessary, please consider the use of Apples iAd interface instead of the Pandora approach to butchering the user experience.

I am delighted to say your metro system is just wonderful! We just spent our first week in Washington, a delightful surprise. One of your top attractions (but with powerful competition !!!) Spotless carriages and stations , pleasant and helpful staff. One negative for newcomers… Metro stations are not signposted!! A significant issue.
Fares are very reasonable and zero graffiti noted!
We are world travelers -/ Sydney, Frankfurt, Rome, Paris London and worst of all… Boston- our current home!
Thank you for a wonderful experience —- Washington and it’s Metro!

The real-time predictions for arrivals
of metro buses on the J1,2,3 line used to be spot on. In the past 4 months they become so unreliable that I can no longer use them to know whether I will miss or catch the bus. The ID of 1,2 or 3 is random although fortunately any of them will take me to the Medical Center Metro. But coming home, it is outrageous and a number of times I wished I had known the times were so off I should have taken an Uber or called someone to pick me up. Metro train schedules were ok but you don’t need DCMetroandBus once you are in the station. I keep hoping the old reliability will return but was disappointed yet again today. What happened and when will your real-time get real again?

Fix the bug where the bus disappears off the map! It is so infuriating when you’re trying to time your morning commute, weighing out whether you’re going to sacrifice food, makeup, feeding your pet, or all the above just to be at the stop on time—only to either rush there and wait another 6 minutes when it says arriving in 2, or abandon all hope because the bus has completely disappeared from the queue. Don’t worry though, half the time you can feel like an idiot because it’ll magically REAPPEAR 1 minute before arrival. Every move you make based off DCMetroandBus is a gamble. Just fix it there’s no reason for this. And the UI could be a lot more pleasing to the eye.

DCMetroandBus does just what I need it to do. It tells me how long until the next few trains and which lines they are. I have found it to be very accurate, and it loads up immediately, unlike the WMATA web page.

I like that you can try it free with ads. After 3 days of using it, I paid for the ad-free version. Definitely worth the cost for me.

Note that I only ride the train, so can’t comment on buses.

DCMetroandBus is so useless. 0/10 would not recommend. First, the ads are out of control. If you’re trying to do something quickly to figure out your route, don’t even bother because 3 ads will pop up that you have to wait to clear before you can do anything. Next, the Silver Spring station bus bays are not included in the routes for buses that begin and end at the station. Last, the stops are not comprehensive in the list. I was looking for a bus so I could go back home and DCMetroandBus was absolutely no help in figuring out where I could get on because where I actually found the bus was not listed!

I love DCMetroandBus. I use it for both bus and train schedules. I find the information reliable. I love the "favorites" option; it streamlines my use of DCMetroandBus . I also appreciate how it filters notifications. I find I get very little irrelevant information that way. Lots of effort went into this design and it shows -- thank you!!

I’m wondering what happened to the ad-free version. I purchased it some time ago but am not able to reactivate with this update. The ads aren’t the big fulls teen ones that seemed to pop up at the worst possible time, leaving the schedule unviewable. Now the ads are small, but still annoying!!! I might purchase ad-free again if I could find how to do it, but it’s not under settings or alerts - at least I couldn’t find it!! 3-stars only because of that. I love DCMetroandBus!

At some point DCMetroandBus was updated and the ads are much more frequent and intrusive. I see many full screen ads and sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to close them. It’s unfortunate that paying customers have to deal with this, but I also understand the metro is budget constrained. I hope they can switch to small banner ads at least. The constant full page ads make DCMetroandBus a chore to use. I just want to see when the next train is arriving

DCMetroandBus is amazing. I’ve been using it for more than a year without any problem. But 3 weeks ago since I downloaded the last version it has errors all the time and does not show the real bus/circulator scheduled, plus changes the time randomly every time I open it.

Disgusted with metro service and workers Woodley Park Station always has very rude workers! Complete joke! Everyone rides for free now and jumps the gate. No metro worker at this station or any station cares. It’s a free for all why not. Homeless people sleeping in cars. Puke and pee all over the place. High and drunk people harassing people. The metro is going to have to eventually shut down. How are they going to pay workers and complete repairs if no one pays fares??? Did the idiots who work there and let people jump the gates every day think of that, Obviously not. Stupidly and unacceptable!!!

The metro app is sorta okay when it is barely working. Some of the things that are frustrating are : there use to be pictures for bus stops which was helpful to figure out the bus stops but that was taken away, also ad has increased so much that you cannot do anything without ads every second tap in DCMetroandBus and now cannot see anything with ad covering everything and now when trains are coming has stopped as well

The only time I could ever complain was when the buses were indicted as arriving but they’re been a major accident that snarled traffic and they were nowhere about. The Alerts that normally indicate that problem had nothing to say about that. Otherwise it’s money well spent. Thanks for all the improvements. -Longtime rider

There is like 70% accuracy in DCMetroandBus and that’s only at times. They predict when buses come but only barley. I take the E4 to friendship heights and this bus is the definition of inconsistency. I would also take any of the R buses which also lack consistency. It’s annoying questioning if my bus will even show up on a daily and if I have to change my route because the bus won’t show up on DCMetroandBus . Please do better at tracking your buses in the future.

The R2 buses are the most problematic. Mostly they are always late and very few. People living on that route we face a lot of challenges when it comes to going to our homes. Please add more R2 buses and please can they be more reliable!

If the same people that run the Metro would give Atlanta some tips or better yet run Marta. I would ride Marta more often. MARTA is a joke, The METRO system is an example of how a public transit system should be ran. Thanks for what you do everyday.

I use DCMetroandBus often, and am happy to have it as a resource. I just wish it contained more specific information. For instance, I am happy to have the bus route alerts, however they don’t actually list the bus routes—just the streets that are affected. Unless you know the actual route, you won’t know which busses are being referenced.

I ride Metrobus frequently and have wasted much time waiting for buses that showed a certain number of minutes out; then to have that bus “disappears” and the time reset to show 30 or more minutes out. Obviously for the next bus. Get your act together Fake

DO NOT RELY ON DCMetroandBus TO SEE WHEN THE LAST TRAIN / BUS IS DEPARTING FROM YOUR STOP! DCMetroandBus will frequently tell me that there are several more trains leaving in my desired direction but when I show up at the station there are none. Sometimes I work late and DCMetroandBus is totally useless for telling me whether there’s going to be a train or not. WMATA is unreliable to begin with; I guess we shouldn’t have expected their approach to app development to be any more competent.

Would be nice if your app was accurate. I’ve had multiple occasions where DCMetroandBus says shady grove will be here in five minutes and glenmont in one minute but it’s actually the other way around. Also, when your app is constantly three minutes behind the actual schedule it provides false hope to those of us who want to actually make the train.

Ads are beyond reasonable, if selling an ad free version of an app whose purpose is to sell you another service is ever reasonable. There are the normal small ads on the main page that make it slow to load. Then, if you leave it unattended for a minute or so, a full page ad pops up. It includes more stops and I like that it shows you the schedule as well as real time. It's no more accurate than the earlier version and not really worth switching.

DCMetroandBus is really good, though would be better if my bus route had the correct information. The developers need to re-look at or update wmata’s bus routes. The route I take starting from the Maryland side has the incorrect destination so I can never tell if the bus is on schedule or not. I wish they would fix this cause I think it would be the perfect app to use.

DCMetroandBus in theory should be helpful especially since I use public transportation 90% of the time to get around. However the bus arrival times in DCMetroandBus is always wrong. It is NOT helpful to see that a bus is arriving in 8 minutes when it says at that time (8 minutes) for 5 minutes. Therefore the wait is actually 13 minutes and I'm just wasting my time by planning my commute around an incorrect time, which is way too often.

Every once in a while, for a period of a few weeks or a few months, DCMetroandBus will completely break down and show bus times incorrectly. While there is generally some margin of error in any transit app using their own algorithms, these periods are beyond what is acceptable. When DCMetroandBus works, it’s great. The problem is that it does not always do so.