Metro will be adding more bus service to replace some D.C. Circulator routes, including the most popular Georgetown to Union Station route. But the National Mall and Eastern Market to L’Enfant Plaza routes will not be replaced, nor will bus coverage between Woodley Park and 14th Street NW.
Now, Metro is trying to fill the gap. The route changes speed up some parts of an overhaul of Metro bus service set to take effect next summer. While rail ridership is still below pre-pandemic highs, more people are taking the bus than before the pandemic, and Metro is trying to tap into that growing customer base. But with a financial crisis looming for Metro, ambitious expansion plans are on hold; Metro is instead shifting current routes to where demand is highest. The city, also cash-strapped, said earlier this year that the Circulator’s $40 million operating budget wasn’t sustainable with current ridership.
Sharon Kershbaum, acting director of the D.C. Department of Transportation, said the changes will “better serve thousands of bus riders while using resources more cost-effectively.”
Metro’s route changes will cost the city about $8.7 million a year. Metro is simultaneously planning to make permanent its new 24-hour bus service on some D.C. routes, at a cost to the city of $11.5 million a year.
One change is to extend 31 and 33 bus service, which currently goes from Georgetown to Farragut Square, all the way to Union Station. The 38B will run more frequently between Rosslyn to Farragut Square. Buses up and down 14th Street NW will also take quicker loops to accommodate the loss of the Circulator on that busy stretch. And a shuttle bus will take riders from Stanton and Pomeroy roads SE to the Anacostia Metro stop.
The bus that goes between Union Station and Georgetown is by far the most popular of the six Circulator routes and the only one where ridership has come anywhere near rebounding to pre-pandemic highs. The Woodley Park to McPherson Square route was historically the second most-used Circulator. But its ridership crashed during the pandemic and is now at fewer than 200,000 riders a year.
The Mall route, popular with tourists, at one point had the most riders per mile traveled but has likewise failed to recover after the pandemic. It covers National Park Service territory, and Metro officials said it would be up to the federal government to decide whether they wanted to replace the service.
The city said Monday it was helping Circulator’s 278 employees find work with WMATA and other regional bus companies. Metro might also buy some of the 15 battery-powered electric buses in the Circulator fleet, the city said, otherwise they will be sold off.
Critics of the plan say it is better than nothing but still strands people who worked at or depended on the Circulator service for the past 18 years, particularly on the Southeast and Southwest D.C. routes.
Tuesday’s announcement was a “Band-Aid,” said Benjamin Lynn, a spokesman for the union representing most Metro employees. “We need a real solution.”
The union has been advocating for all the Circulator assets to simply be folded into Metro. Lynn said that “could be an example of the path forward,” not just for the Circulator but for the patchwork of regional bus companies currently trying to better coordinate service.
Lynn said Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has failed to engage as promised on the Circulator wind down and has not responded to messages requesting information. As of July, her office is supposed to provide monthly updates on the transition to the D.C. Council. But lawmakers got no information from the mayor until Monday evening, when her office issued identical reports for both August and September saying they were working with Metro on the process.
“This transition plan is better late than never, but it still leaves riders without a bus and drivers without a job,” Charles Allen, who heads the D.C. Council’s transportation committee, said in a statement. “It feels like we’re looking at a plan thrown together in the last couple of months that will leave students, residents, and workers without the transit they need.”
