WMATA new buses 2026
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, known as WMATA and called Metro by the agency itself, runs the buses and trains for the National Capital Region, covering the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. WMATA new buses 2026 means 100 more vehicles for Metro, 75 hybrid electric buses that still burn some diesel and 25 battery electric buses that run on batteries alone. Metro announced the order on February 10, 2026, not as a fresh contract but as an option it exercised under a 5 year deal with the bus builder New Flyer, signed a year earlier in February 2025.
The 2025 figure and the 500 bus ceiling come from source 2. The 300 figure is a MAOWCE calculation, 500 minus the 200 already ordered.
Show the numbers
| Ordered, 2025 | 100 |
| Ordered, 2026 | 100 |
| Still available | 300 |
Metro repeats the same 3 to 1 split a year later
The February 2025 base order was also 75 hybrid electric buses and 25 battery electric buses, the identical split repeated exactly a year later. Reading Metro own 2025 announcement directly, rather than a summary of it, is the only way to see that repetition, since no news coverage found in researching this article states that the ratio repeated. That base contract lets Metro grow its order to as many as 500 buses in total. Adding the 100 buses ordered in 2025 to the 100 buses ordered in 2026 puts Metro at 200 buses ordered, leaving 300 buses still available under the option it has not yet used.
These new hybrid and battery electric buses allow us to replace aging vehicles, improve the customer experience, and continue modernizing our fleet.
Randy Clarke, general manager and chief executive officer of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Source 1.
Federal funding now favors hybrid buses over battery electric ones
Within the February 2026 order itself, hybrid electric buses outnumber battery electric ones 3 to 1, the same skew as the base order. That pattern lines up with a shift in federal money. Starting in fiscal year 2025, the Federal Transit Administration Low or No Emission Grant Program has told transit agencies it intends to prioritize low emission buses, meaning gas, propane and hybrid vehicles, over zero emission buses, meaning battery electric and hydrogen ones, to the maximum extent the law allows. That preference already shows up in the numbers. 97% of fiscal year 2025 Low or No Emission Program awards nationwide went to low emission buses rather than zero emission ones. New Flyer parent company, NFI Group, sees the same pattern in its own order book. Battery and fuel cell electric buses made up 27.4% of NFI deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2025, and NFI 2026 guidance expects a lower zero emission share for the whole year.
This ratio matches the 75 to 25 split in the February 2025 base order exactly, the repetition described in the body text above.
Show the numbers
| Hybrid electric | 75 |
| Battery electric | 25 |
New Flyer is committed to continuing our decades long relationship with Metro, providing buses that deliver strong value, reliability, and performance.
Chris Stoddart, president of North American Bus and Coach at NFI. Source 1.
What the order does not yet answer
Neither Metro nor New Flyer has stated a price for the February 2026 order or for the base contract it sits inside. A separate 50.3 million dollar federal grant Metro announced in November 2025 pays for 50 different hybrid buses, and no source confirms those buses are among the 75 hybrid buses in this new order. Delivery dates for the 100 new buses have not been announced either. The general manager and chief executive of Metro, Randy Clarke, frames the order around replacing aging vehicles, not around which fuel each bus uses.