Starting Monday WMATA will add 9 morning trips on 16th Street bus corridor

Photo courtesy of Kishan Putta

From WMATA:

Starting Monday, March 25, Metro will add nine new southbound trips on 16th Street NW during the morning rush hour.

The new “short trips” will serve only the southern portion of the S-Line bus corridor, where customers frequently experience extremely crowded buses and difficulty boarding. The additional buses will start service at 16th St NW at Harvard St NW, making all S2 stops on 16th Street to H St NW. At H Street, the buses will turn left to 14th St NW.

Because the buses will start enter service at Harvard Street NW, passengers at bus stops south of Mount Pleasant should find it easier to find room to board.

The additional nine trips will operate weekdays from 7:30 to 9:15 a.m. Currently, the lower portion of the 16th Street Line is served by 57 bus trips during this period, including limited-stop MetroExtra service on the S9. The additional nine trips will bring this total to 66.

Metro bus planners worked cooperatively with the Dupont Circle ANC to address the issue of crowded conditions on S-Line buses. The additional service is considered a “late add” to upcoming service changes and, as such, will not appear in printed timetables until June. Metro’s online trip planner will reflect the additional trips.

Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of improvements to bus service as part of Metro’s $5 million “Better Bus” initiative. Earlier this week, Metro announced new MetroExtra limited-stop service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue starting March 24, as well as new Saturday MetroExtra service on Georgia Avenue NW.

In December, Metro extended the hours of MetroExtra service on 16th Street to provide additional capacity during the late-evening hours (between 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.).