Travel Alert: Changes to Bus Routes, Stops    

By Topher Mathews 

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is overhauling its bus routes. Some of us know about the bus revolution coming at the end of June, but no one in Georgetown has been more helpful in getting the word out than Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Topher Mathews. The following excerpts, lightly edited, are from his Georgetown Metropolitan blog.  

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to again warn you that the entire WMATA bus system is about to change dramatically. Starting on June 29, every single route in the city will bear a new name, and a majority of them will travel new routes.  

Here is a handy thumbnail description of how the existing Georgetown lines will appear starting June 29:  

D2: This will now be called the D96 and it will now travel from Bethesda all the way to Foggy Bottom. The Georgetown-to-Dupont section will largely remain the same.    

G2: This will now be called the C91. It will still travel from Georgetown University to Howard University. But instead of traveling along O, P and Dumbarton Streets through Georgetown, it will travel on Q Street. 

 D6: This will now be called the D94. It will still travel to Sibley, but no longer will it go eastward to RFK. It will now terminate in Chinatown.  

38B: This will now be called the A58. It will still travel from Farragut out to Ballston by way of Georgetown, but now it will continue onward all the way to Seven Corners.  

30 Series: The 30 series will be replaced with the D80 and the D82. Through Georgetown it will mostly be the same (although with an unfortunate number of eliminated bus stops). The D80 will travel to Union Station (like the current 33) and the D82 will go to Foggy Bottom (like the current 31).  

Finally, there will be a novel new route called the C85. It will travel from Foggy Bottom along M Street through Georgetown. It will then head out to MacArthur Boulevard in the Palisades in order to reach the new MacArthur High School. Then it will wind its way back through Glover Park and up through Ward 3.  

What I want to discuss this month is the euphemistically named “bus stop consolidation” that WMATA is also deploying at the end of the month. In English, what this means is that WMATA is eliminating a bunch of bus stops.  

These are the actual stops on the Wisconsin and M Street routes and whether they will continue or not:  

Southbound Eliminated?  

Wisconsin and … 34th No  

R No  

Q No  

P Yes  

Dumbarton No  

M and … Wisconsin No*  

Thos. Jeff. Yes*  

Pennsylvania and … 28th No  

Northbound Eliminated? 

Pennsylvania and … 28th No  

M and … 30th Yes*  

31st No*  

Wisconsin and … N Yes  

P No  

Q No  

R No  

34th No  

So, for the 30 series replacements, when you’re going downtown the eliminated stops are the one in front of Lutèce and the one in front of the Barnes & Noble. When you’re heading back to Georgetown from downtown, the eliminated stops are the one in front of Sprinkles and the one in front of Ralph Lauren.  

Additionally, the asterisks next to a couple of the stops relate to the 38B replacement (the A58). It will in fact continue to stop at M and 30th (in front of Sprinkles) and M and Thomas Jefferson (in front of the Barnes & Noble). It will also continue to use the stops west of Wisconsin that it currently uses.  

But it won’t continue to stop at M and 31st (in front of the Urban Outfitters) or M and Wisconsin (in front of the Capital One Café). Essentially, they took the four stops on M between 30th and Wisconsin and split them up; one half will keep being used by the 30 series replacement and the other half by the 38B replacement. This has the added annoyance of making it more difficult for a rider heading downtown to simply wait at one stop and take whichever bus comes first. The only stop on M or Wisconsin to be fully removed is the one in front of Ralph Lauren.  

For more details, visit wmata.com/initiatives/plans/better-bus.  

tagsbusbus routesdc busGeorgetownWMATA