TheBus (Prince George's County)

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TheBus

A TheBus bus at Mount Rainier Terminal
Founded	January 1990; 35 years ago (1990-01) [1]
Service area	Prince George's County, Maryland, U.S.
Service type	Bus service
Routes	22
Fleet	Gillig, ElDorado National, Proterra
Daily ridership	7,300 (2022)
Annual ridership	1,300,000
Fuel type	Diesel
Operator	RATP Dev (WMATC 3226)
Website	TheBus

TheBus (stylized as THE BUS), also branded as Prince George's County Transit on newer buses, is a bus transportation system serving Prince George's County, Maryland. There are 29 bus routes, with most operating between Washington Metro stations in the county, with two routes running to Upper Marlboro. In 2024, the system had a ridership of 2,441,500 or about 10,600 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2025.

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The idea for Prince George's County establishing its own transit system was initially brought up in 1986, to provide better transportation access to the Upper Marlboro Courthouse and other important government offices, that were isolated from the WMATA Metrorail and Metrobus system. At the time, WMATA charged counties the costs of operating some routes, because regional routes were not profitable due to lower ridership. Prince George's County decided it would be cheaper for the county to operate their own transit system instead. Prince George's County learned watching Montgomery County, which successfully developed its own Ride On transit system in March 1975 in response to WMATA asking the county to pay for routes operating in Montgomery County. Prince George's County's TheBus system was created in January 1990.

The first two routes that Prince George's County started off operating were routes 20 and 21. Route 20 would operate between Addison Road station and the Upper Marlboro Courthouse. Route 21, on the other hand, would operate between the New Carrollton station (WMATA's Orange Line's northern terminus in Prince George's County) and the Equestrian Center, also serving the Upper Marlboro Courthouse. After observing the success of these two routes, Prince George's County decided to add four new routes in April 1996 to serve residential areas being built around WMATA's northern Green Line stations in Prince George's County, which opened in December 1993. These new routes served areas somewhat already served by WMATA, providing additional transportation service to residents and business there. Even more routes were added as several Metro Green Line stations opened in January 2001 and in December 2004 when Morgan Boulevard and the Largo Town Center stations on the Blue Line opened.

On November 7, 2020, TheBus launched new Saturday service on routes 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33, 35, and 36. All routes operate every 30–45 minutes between 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM.^[2][3]

In 2023, TheBus partnered with Metrobus to redesign its current network dubbed as Better Bus. After months of proposals, on November 21, 2024, WMATA approved its Better Bus Network Redesign, which began in 2022. Under the plan, all routes will be renamed with easier to understand route designations and modify most of its existing routes with the goal of making the bus system easier to use, faster, and more reliable. Changes are expected to start on June 29, 2025. All TheBus routes were renamed into P routes.^[4] At the same time, TheBus changed its name to Prince George's County Transit.

While a bus service operated in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., by Metrobus, or a local or state government in Maryland, is not required to have an Operating Authority from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Commission, such authorization is required for a service operated by a non-government agency. Because TheBus is operated by RATP Dev,^[5] under a contract with Prince George's County, it has operating authorization as WMATC 3226.

All routes operate on Weekdays with select routes operating on Saturdays. Service usually ends around 6:30 pm on most routes with some routes ending at 8:00 pm. TheBus does not operate on Sundays, or on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

All routes listed below began service on June 30, 2025.

In addition to fixed-route buses, TheBus system also includes microtransit service. Rides cost $2 and must be booked and paid with the TransLoc app.^[7]

The use of the buses has been free since June 30th 2025.^[8] The fare was $1.25, but seniors, the disabled, and students (between 2:00PM and 7:00PM) riding free.^[9][10] On October 13, 2008, TheBus began accepting payment using SmarTrip regional farecards.^[11]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to TheBus (Prince George's County).

• Official website