June 2012 Service Changes

[C40LF_2464]

If you havent heard about the new pick and route changes starting out this month, take a look at this.

www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=5233

Major changes include the F6 going to Ft Totten instead of Silver Spring anymore, going the way the R3 does, replacing the R3 from Ft Totten to Pg Plaza.  More bus trips on the F4. The R2 will no longer serve PG Plaza which I will miss alot. The S1will apparently be an official artic route, The P1,P2 will be discountinued, with the P6 taking their place then. The 9E Extended to Roslyn some trips,

And in the fall we will see the A9,16Y,16F,28X,J4 and a  Q9 Limited Stop. with the 79 also having weekend service!

[DCT S9Z4Z6]

And also the R2 serving 23rd avenue thru Lewisdale, as well as by-passing PG Plaza.
Talk about a super tight right hand turn off of University Blvd, onto 23rd avenue.

Another thing I noticed. . its yet another change for the F6 route. How many times has WMATA tweaked its routing, since the F6's inception in the mid 70's?

[WMATAGMOAGH]

The L2, which has ended at McPherson Square (and to my knowledge, has been virtually unchanged) for decades, will no longer operate on 18th Street and will now end at Farragut Square instead of McPherson Square.  I have a personal attachment to this route since it was my first home route, and remember that it used to only be the L2 and L4 on this corridor (along with the separate L5, I'm not sure how the L1 today differs from the L5 that used to operate) and that the L4 at one time went all the way to the Kennedy Center before being cut for the first time.  It was brought back, only operating as far as Dupont Circle in its current iteration, which comes to an end next month.

[RideOn5905]

The R2 is skipping Prince George's Plaza? I have a feeling that nobody is going to be happy about that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the R2 have a lot of boardings and disembarkings at PG Plaza? Oh, well, we can only hope that they reinstate it in the future. Incidentally, they said that time between buses on Sunday will be reduced to 60 minutes. I checked the upcoming schedule, and it still has it listed as 70 minutes.

Headways on the F4 are now 20 minutes. Hopefully that should alleviate some of the crowding.

Now, the F6... I'm wondering what the lack of weekend service will mean for the former R3 crowd who used to have that luxury.

The P6 will be rerouted along M Street instead of Virginia Avenue.

Headways on the 4's will increase to 60 minutes from 50.

And it appears that not only will the 9E be extended to Rosslyn, but the 10E will as well, and the 10E will also serve the Crystal City VRE station.

So the 22A service between Ballston and Barcroft will be renamed 22B. Interesting...

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

Heh, seems not long ago the 22B was the Army-Navy Dr line that now makes up ART route 87. Also, it looks like they only mention the Q9 only once, and never mention anything about it being new, I hope this route will happen soon.
As for the 74 cutting the Buzzard Point portion, they might as well just make the 70 go back to Half and O SW and leave it at that (with some short trips to Archives).

[79MetroExtraMD]

Heh, seems not long ago the 22B was the Army-Navy Dr line that now makes up ART route 87. Also, it looks like they only mention the Q9 only once, and never mention anything about it being new, I hope this route will happen soon.
As for the 74 cutting the Buzzard Point portion, they might as well just make the 70 go back to Half and O SW and leave it at that (with some short trips to Archives).

The 70 is alright as it is now. The main ridership of that line was 7th Street and Georgia Avenue. South of Archives, those buses ran damn near empty plus you have alot of service being duplicated. The 74 fills that need for those living in that area. Also, I'm a little bit confused to why they decided to rename the Half & O SW terminal as NATIONALS PARK. Some people might confuse that in thinking it'll stop right at the stadium instead of it actually stopping in the neighborhood a couple blocks from it.
Regarding the L2, I'm curious as to how those buses will turn around. I can only think of them turning on I and then making that left on 19th and left on H back to 17th. Plus, with this bypassing Dupont Circle at all times, I wonder how much of an impact this will have on the 42 and 43 especially with the Adams Morgan folks.

[BigPimpinSlimDB]

I wonder what division is going to handle the R3? Naturally, I could see Landover or Montgomery (since the C2 and C4 terminates at PG Plaza and Greenbelt). I could also see Bladensburg doing some of F6 due to 80 and R1/R2 lines ending at Fort Totten.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

I wonder what division is going to handle the R3? Naturally, I could see Landover or Montgomery (since the C2 and C4 terminates at PG Plaza and Greenbelt). I could also see Bladensburg doing some of F6 due to 80 and R1/R2 lines ending at Fort Totten.

If it's a choice between Montgomery and Landover, definitely Landover. The reason the C2 and C4 are Montgomery buses is because they terminate at Wheaton and Twinbrook Stations, which is Montgomery turf

[WES]

With the F6 being a Landover route and the R3 being a Bladensburg route those most likely will stay the same as each is operated by a different union and to go into that will be too complicated, but Landover is keeping the F6 and the R3 will still be Bladensburg.

[OrionFlyer]

So that means the R3 will be the only Bladensburg route that doesn't operate in the city.