CUE Bus (City-University-Energysaver) is a

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

service operated by the City of

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

, and is completely separate from the

Fairfax Connector Fairfax Connector is a public bus service provided by Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, and is managed by the county government. The bus system provides service within Fairfax County, and connects to Metrobus, Metrorail stations, Virginia ...

bus service run by Fairfax County. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .

Routes and services

CUE operates two loop routes between

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

and the

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Metro station, each running in both directions for a total of four named routes. The Green loop, consisting of routes Green 1 (clockwise) and Green 2 (counterclockwise) operates on the east side of Fairfax, while the Gold loop, consisting of routes Gold 1 (clockwise) and Gold 2 (counterclockwise) operates on the west side. In addition to providing service to GMU and Vienna Metro, the CUE serves all major activity centers in the City of Fairfax, including downtown, Kamp Washington, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Circle and Fair City Mall. In 2009, the City of Fairfax partnered with Montgomery County, Maryland, in the purchase of new buses. As a result, six 35-foot, low-floor

Gillig Gillig (formerly Gillig Brothers) is an American designer and manufacturer of buses. The company headquarters, along with its manufacturing operations, is located in Livermore, California (in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area) ...

Hybrid buses were added to the fleet in August 2009. These new buses are expected to consume much less fuel, as they operate off an electric engine when operated at 35 MPH or lower, and 35 MPH is the maximum speed limit in Fairfax. These buses are now retired as of May 2022. The CUE Bus system owns and operates twelve 35-foot, low-floor

clean diesel buses in its fleet, half of which replaced the remaining 30-foot Gillig Phantom buses in the fall of 2015, the other half entered service and replaced the hybrid buses in May 2022.

Zero-Fare Pilot

In 2020 CUE stopped collecting fares to reduce passenger contact during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and remained zero-fare after that point. In January, 2022 the City Council approved a plan to formalize a 3-year zero-fare pilot program that would make CUE free to ride through June, 2025. In Spring of 2022 CUE was awarded a Transit Ridership Incentive Program grant from the

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. According to its web site, the state agency's mission is "to improve the mobility of people and goods while expandin ...

that allowed the City to extend the pilot program for an additional year, making CUE free to ride through June, 2026.

Routes and services

Zero-Fare Pilot

Fleet

Retired fleet

References

External links