2023 Bus Progress Report

This year’s 2023 Progress Report includes:

  • Assessment of regional progress against last year’s priorities
  • Feedback from agency staff on priorities and focus areas
  • MetroNow’s recommended bus priorities for 2023
  • Fast facts and appendices on bus performance

The Bus Transformation Project (BTP) Strategy was the result of a two year process of expansive public engagement and technical analysis to develop a living strategy to transform regional bus service. Published in 2019, the BTP put forth four overarching strategies and twenty-six recommendations to help the region transform bus service.

The BTP and its Executive Steering Committee recognized that the bus is critical to the economic and social health of our region. Today, the region is heading toward a fiscal funding cliff for regional transit services when federal COVID relief funding to transit agencies runs out. If we do not act before Fiscal Year 2025, which starts July 1 2024, regional bus service may face historic cuts. The 2023 Progress Report is intended to recognize the importance of the bus and help the region prioritize efforts to accelerate progress toward the vision of bus transformation.

The MetroNow Coalition produced the first Progress Report in 2022 to measure progress against the BTP’s twenty-six recommendations. That first report, published last year, highlighted how the region’s transit agencies made progress implementing the vision, despite the pandemic. MetroNow also encouraged the region to collaborate on six key priorities in 2022 to advance the goals of bus transformation.

We hope this report is a useful tool that helps to remind readers and leaders about the need to lean in, align behind key priorities, and accelerate action to build a better, seamless, and more reliable regional bus system.

Download the 2023 Progress Report and last year’s inaugural 2022 Progress Report below.