The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is a non-federal tri-jurisdictional agency authorized by Congress, and funded by the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland that operates transit service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. WMATA operates bus service under the Metrobus brand and rapid transit service under the Metrorail brand.

For the details of the rail system, see Washington Metro.

History

WMATA was created on February 10, 1967, and broke ground for its train system in 1969. WMATA's bus system is a successor to four privately-owned bus companies, which were sold to WMATA in 1973.

Linguistic features

Riders almost always call WMATA's Metrobus service simply "the bus," unless for some reason they need to distinguish Metrobus from a local bus system such as Alexandria's DASH. Metrorail is called "Metro" or "the Metro," rarely "the subway." It is also often used as a verb, e.g. "How did you get here?" "I Metro'd."

In addition, WMATA itself is frequently referred to as "Metro," e.g. "Today, Metro officials announced a fare hike."

See also

• List of Washington, DC railroads
• List of United States railroads

External links

• WMATA website
• WMATA website