Your Favorite Routes

[MetroLinerXLZ]

My picks:

WMATA: 5A, 7, 13, 22-25, 34 (towards Southern Ave. Station), 70, 83, 96, A42 (thanks to Tristan), B30, C4, E2, F4, K6, K12, Q2, R2-R4, T2, X2, the Y, and Z6.

Ride On: 10 (cuz I loves Gilligs on hills), 48, 49, 55, 57, 58, 61, 70, 74, 100

DASH: 2, 5, 7, 8

Fairfax Connector: 109, 425/7, 574, 950

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

Ride-On: 1, 11, 8, 34, 43, 45, 47, 55, 61, 70, 74, 76, 100

WMATA: 1 line, 4 line, 10 line, 22A, 23A, 25 line, 30 line (the 30s), D6, F4, H line, J line (especially J7/J9), N line, T2, Y line

Fairfax Connector: 109, 231/232, 321/322, 425/427

DASH: 4, 5, 7

I can't help it, but I have to mention one route in Florida I REALLY love. BCT's route 23, the scenery, speed, middle-of-nowhereness, mall-to-mall line is just pure awesome.

Oh and the BLUE means that I REALLY like that route.



......well since I mentioned BCT....my favorite routes there is the 1, 7, 10, 11, 23, 40, 55, 62 (assume they are all blue)

[OrionFlyer]

My favorite routes in the DC area are the A2-A42 lines, B30, B27, C21/C22/C26/C29, C2, 42,T16, G8, 89M, A12,F12, C12, D12, V12, H12, K12, R12(absolute favorite! ), P12, P17/P18/P19,D14, M4, M6, D8, N22, F14, T18, 79, Q2, X2, X8, U8 W4, W13, W14, Y routes, NH1 , F4/F6, L1/L2/L4,  Z9/Z29, 38B, 16Y, 11Y, 3Y, 20W, 20Y,5A, the 12's, 2C, 23A, 16G, 1C, the 7's, 9A, REX and the 24P.

[79MetroExtraMD]

What's so special about the 109 that I haven't ridden yet?

Here's mine again with a few new ones

WMATA: 3 line, 5A, 9A, 10 line, 13 line, 15 line, 16 line, 17A, 22A, 23A, 24P, 25D, 26A, 32, 38 line, 42, 79, 80, 83, 98, B30, C2/C4, C8, D line, F4/F6, H line, H8, J line, J9, L2, N line, Q line, R3, R4, S line, T2, Z line

Ride On: 1, 5, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23, 28, 29, 30, 34, 38, 46, 48, 55, 59, 60, 61, 63, 67, 70, 74, 75, 83, 90 (love this line to death), 100

Connector: 171, 310, 380, 401, 425/427, 505, 597, 605, 950

DASH: 3, 4, 5

ART: 41, 52

PRTC: PMD (Prince William Metro Direct), CCC (Cross County Connector), Dale City

Loudoun: Dulles North, Reverse Commute

I hope to do the full 75 route to Urbana and do a Loudoun run to Leesburg and back.

[Perry]

If I had to rank any of the routes for my current system in Las Vegas, I like the 106, 402 (which I'd love to eliminate the Boulder City portion and create a separate routing, but the scheduler and I keep arguing (friendly of course) about how to do that effectively), the 104 (very scenic), 108 for the efficient and fairly quick routing it takes, 109 especially through the airport connector when it flies through the tunnel under the runway, 201, 202, and the 213 particularly when it goes through the Desert Inn superarterial.  On Wednesday I get to ride the 107 up and down Boulder Highway a few times to find out what our operators are doing (or not) in making that route have such awful OTP.

It's the only route routinely keeping us from maintaining a 97% OTP within 10 minutes and over 90% within 5.

[OrionFlyer]

What's so special about the 109 that I haven't ridden yet?

Here's mine again with a few new ones

WMATA: 3 line, 5A, 9A, 10 line, 13 line, 15 line, 16 line, 17A, 22A, 23A, 24P, 25D, 26A, 32, 38 line, 42, 79, 80, 83, 98, B30, C2/C4, C8, D line, F4/F6, H line, H8, J line, J9, L2, N line, Q line, R3, R4, S line, T2, Z line

Ride On: 1, 5, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23, 28, 29, 30, 34, 38, 46, 48, 55, 59, 60, 61, 63, 67, 70, 74, 75, 83, 90 (love this line to death), 100

Connector: 171, 310, 380, 401, 425/427, 505, 597, 605, 950

DASH: 3, 4, 5

ART: 41, 52

PRTC: PMD (Prince William Metro Direct), CCC (Cross County Connector), Dale City

Loudoun: Dulles North, Reverse Commute

I hope to do the full 75 route to Urbana and do a Loudoun run to Leesburg and back.

The 38 line? Don't you mean 38B line? The same with Q, don't you mean Q2 line? And you put D line. Which D line are you talking about, the D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D8, D12, D13, or D14? And which J  line are you talking about J1, J2, J3, J4, J5, J11, J12, or, 13? And which H line are you referring to, H1, H2, H3, H4, H8, H9, H11, H12, or H13. And are you talking about all the 16 routes even the 16Y? And also does the N line include the N22

[Tristan]

We use a lot of shorthand down here because ... well if there's only one Q, "The Q" is just as effective as "the Q2".  Usually if someone says something like "The N Line", they mean the primary batch of routes and not the offshoots from it, or most of the diversions are not significant enough to matter.  You'll get used to it over time :-)

[OrionFlyer]

We use a lot of shorthand down here because ... well if there's only one Q, "The Q" is just as effective as "the Q2".  Usually if someone says something like "The N Line", they mean the primary batch of routes and not the offshoots from it, or most of the diversions are not significant enough to matter.  You'll get used to it over time :-)

Oh OK. I was a little confused at first.

[79MetroExtraMD]

Most of the time when we use the shorthand, we're referring to the DC Transit routes that were absorbed into WMATA. Line and route can be used interchangeably in other TAs, but that's not the case in the DC area. Line refers to the main corridor or areas that a full set of routes serve such as Columbia Pike line, Pennsylvania Avenue line, 16th Street line. Route refers to the different branches on the line.

[Tristan]

Most of the time when we use the shorthand, we're referring to the DC Transit routes that were absorbed into WMATA. Line and route can be used interchangeably in other TAs, but that's not the case in the DC area. Line refers to the main corridor or areas that a full set of routes serve such as Columbia Pike line, Pennsylvania Avenue line, 16th Street line. Route refers to the different branches on the line.

Great point, Ken -- and in VA, the system is pretty much the opposite than in DC.  We'll post a route number history guide soon but...

In DC and MD, the letter generally indicates the LINE and the number indicates the ROUTE.  In DC, there is also the case of only numbers (30-90).  In this case, the first digit is the line and the second digit is the route.

In VA, all routes are number-letter combinations (which I think is better, because letters first only give you 26 lines...[/end VA bias--not that we'd ever have that much service anyway]): 1-38 with several gaps (there is no longer a 6, 14, 19, 27, or 30-37 line).

There are some examples (Q2, 38B) where the remaining route number is a vestige from a time when there were many more routes, so "Q" suffices.

At this point, I guess it's a good idea to also mention the local bus systems.  In order of inception:

Ride On: 1 to 3-digit numbers, lower numbers downcounty (Silver Spring, Takoma), higher numbers upcounty (Rockville, etc).  Only conflicts slightly with WMATA @ Friendship Heights, where WMATA 30s meet the Ride On 34.  Operates certain WMATA routes on weekends under WMATA's route numbering (T2, etc).

CUE: Green and Gold -- GMU's colors.  No conflict there, eh?

DASH: All routes begin with "A.T." as in "Alexandria Transit".  "S" appended to a route number indicates a trip that does not run to the standard terminal of a route, similar to the WMATA "/".

Fairfax Connector: 3-digit route numbers, 100-900.  100-401 South County (Huntington, Springfield, etc), 402+ North County (Tysons, Reston, etc). 401 is a cross-county route (Tysons-Springfield) but is operated under the South County contract.

The Bus: Two-digit route numbers...conflict with Ride On in the Langley Park area.  All WMATA routes in their service area have either letter-number or very high (80s) 2-digit route numbers (highest PG route is in the 50s, right?).

Howie's Truck Service: Colors

Connect-a-Ride: Single letters

Loudoun County: Hasn't discovered a 20th century route identification system yet. 7-to-7-on-7 and similar tongue-twisters on the local side.  Commuter routes named by service area ("Dulles North", etc).  Same for PRTC.

Is anyone else important enough to mention?

[Perry]

PRTC really doesn't need a numbering system.  Just naming what it does works fine.  I had come up with a numbering scheme at one time when I was there but realized it wasn't worth it.  It would be enormously expensive to change all the related collateral to correspond with those changes.  It's one of those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[btconet]

Is anyone else important enough to mention?

ART - Double digit numbers with no suffixes.  No conflicts that I know of since the WMATA VA bus routes all have suffixes.

[Tristan]

I asked if any other system was important enough to mention, not if I had forgotten any agencies at all 

[btconet]

I asked if any other system was important enough to mention, not if I had forgotten any agencies at all 

Damn, So Howie's, Connect-A-Ride, Duh Bus, and CUE outrank ART and Shuttle UM?!?!?

I'll take the baby-Nabis over the cutaways of Howweird Transit anyday.

[79MetroExtraMD]

I asked if any other system was important enough to mention, not if I had forgotten any agencies at all 

Damn, So Howie's, Connect-A-Ride, Duh Bus, and CUE outrank ART and Shuttle UM?!?!?

I'll take the baby-Nabis over the cutaways of Howweird Transit anyday.

lol. So true

Shuttle-UM doesn't really cut as a transit service. Student operated. Metrobus operators and such HATE to be behind Shuttle UM buses. Their practices are beyond all sense of normalcy: Stopping at every single stop even when no one gets on or off. What's the purpose of a bell?