D.C Circulator to expand routes

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(Examiner file photo)
The D.C. Circulator is set to expand its routes next year.

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The D.C. Circulator bus system is expected to expand with at least two new routes in 2008, one between the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and Adams Morgan, and the other from Union Station to the new Washington Nationals ballpark.

The two-year-old, increasingly popular Circulator buses currently operate on three loops, one around the National Mall, one between Union Station and Georgetown, and a third between Mount Vernon Square and the Southwest waterfront. Each ride costs $1.

The new circuits would serve a pair of critical corridors — one already heavily developed and one about to experience extreme growth.

The Navy Yard area in Near Southeast is home to the new U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters, massive residential and commercial construction, and the Nationals’ stadium. It is served by Metrobus and Metrorail’s Green Line.

The Circulator route through the area will be designed “to help create another alternative to driving to the revitalized Southeast corridor,” said Emeka Moneme, director of the D.C. Department of Transportation. But it is not expected to be implemented until late 2008, after the Nationals’ season.

The Adams Morgan route, meanwhile, would replace Metro’s 98 bus, known as the Adams Morgan-U Street Link. The Link, which costs 25 cents and runs from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. between Shaw and the Woodley Park Metro station, has been plagued by low ridership and unreliability.

“Economically for a user it was great that it was a quarter,” said Bryan Weaver, chairman of the Adams Morgan advisory neighborhood commission. “But it just never really caught on. It’s sort of a sad end because I think it is something that’s a necessity.”

Ward 1 D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, who sits on the Metro board and established the Link route, said a bus line running north-south is critical to reduce congestion along the U Street corridor and to link Metro’s Red and Green line trains.

The roles of DDOT and Metro, however, are blurring, Graham said.

“When do we reach the point where we cherry-pick the routes and form our own bus company?” he asked. “Those conversations are obviously extremely preliminary. But it looks like we’re creating a bus company.”

Exact details of routes are still being discussed.

Circulator ridership

» August 2007: 249,963

» August 2006: 214,050

» August 2005: 92,262

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com

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