Help planning your trip

Use Trip Planner on the Metro website (on a computer or on  your phone) to find out how to get where you’re going.

Enter the place you’re starting from and the place you’re going, and Trip Planner will tell you which trains or buses to take, what time they’ll arrive, and how much your trip will cost. Trip Planner usually gives you more than one choice, so you can pick the most convenient one.

Your Trip Planner results will also tell you things like how to walk to the Metro Bus stop or Metro Rail station entrance where your trip begins, and whether there are any service disruptions along your route.

You can see service near you on a map. This will show you which stations and stops are near your current location, where the trains and buses that stop there can take you, and what time they arrive. You can use Trip Planner to find out how to get where you’re going, too.

Inside Metro Rail stations, near most exits, you can see a map that shows you where the bus stops near the station are located, and which buses stop there.

If you need more help, you can call or contact Metro Customer Service and we will help you.

Inside Metro Rail stations, including on the platform where you wait for your train, you’ll see a digital display telling you how long until the next train arrives. And at many Metro Bus stops, you’ll see a digital display inside the bus shelter telling you how long until the next bus arrives.

When you use Trip Planner to plan your trip, or use the map to find your station or stop, you’ll see exactly when the train or bus is coming. Usually this information is updated in real time as our trains and buses travel, so you know it’s correct.

Every station and stop page shows you when trains and buses will arrive. If you use the same stations or stops frequently, you can bookmark their pages in your browser (on your phone or on your computer) so you can open them easily.

You can use MetroPulse to see Metro Rail arrival information, and see the current locations of trains on a map.

Other apps and services on your phone and computer, like Apple and Google Maps, and the Transit and Citymapper apps, also know when trains and buses are coming. Usually, they’ll show you exactly the same information that we will, so you can use any service you like.

Thousands of riders every day use a bus or train from another regional transit service to connect to Metro Rail or Metro Bus. If you need to use another service to get to and from Metro and you use Trip Planner to plan your trip, it can plan your whole trip, not just the part on Metro. 

In addition to Metro Rail and Metro Bus, you can use Smart Trip to pay your fare on local bus systems in DC, Maryland, and Virginia — including ART, DASH, Fairfax Connector, Cue, RideON, TheBus, Loudoun County Transit, and OmniRide. You can also use a Smart Trip card (but not Smart Trip in Wallet) on Baltimore MTA.

If you pay for your whole trip using Smart Trip, and it includes a trip on another regional transit service, some services will give you a discount on your fare.