Last October, DDOT started floating the idea of replacing the remaining Blue Bus route between Rosslyn and Dupont with a new Circulator route. There’s precedence for this since the Circulator already replaced the Foggy Bottom route of the Blue Bus.
Since the new route would require the District-run Circulator to cross jurisdictions, the Council needed to approve legislation authorizing it. But since then, there’s been somewhat of radio silence as to when the Circulator would actually take over.
GM made some inquiries to DDOT and found out that the target is to start up the route by the Fall. GM asked whether the route would be altered from the current Blue Bus route. In particular, GM is curious to know where the bus will stop in Dupont. As it is the Blue Bus stops in the slightly-off-the-beaten-path of N and 19th. It would be ideal if when the Circulator took over, it would stop directly in front of the Metro stop. Unfortunately those details haven’t been hashed out yet.
While GM will be sad to see the demise of the Blue Bus, the Circulator is a worthy replacement. The one hesitation GM has is that by converting the Blue Bus to a Circulator, the BID (which runs the Blue Bus) is losing control over the route. One need only remember the threatened cut to the Circulator to see how that could go wrong for Georgetown.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
If indeed the Circulator Bus gets permission to cross jurisdictions, say into Virginia, then why stop at only the Rosslyn Metro. Why not run it to the Court House Metro stop as well? And to Ballston’s Metro? And to Tyson’s Corner Metro? And to Pentagon City? Lots of potential shoppers out there, all shopping at malls where the parking is free and all the restaurants are jammed into food courts. Then the Circulator can bring all these shoppers to Georgetown where they can shop at The Gap, and Polo, and Abercrombie, and American Eagle, and H&M, etc.
The Blue Bus was always inferior to me since I could not use my Smartrip card. Long live electronic commerce!
The Circulator, since it’s funded by DC, is not intended to service the suburbs. It’s meant to connect DC’s neighborhoods not easily reached through existing Metro lines.
The extension to Rosslyn makes sense though in order to connect Georgetown to a gateway Metro station for NoVa, to more easily bring Arlington tourists into Georgetown, and to ferry Georgetown residents into Rosslyn for work more easily. There’s no point in continuing down towards Ballston when there’s a very serviceable Metro line which accomplishes the same thing.
And running it through more of Arlington would just add to potential for it being delayed.
And of course, there’s the biggest benefit: connecting Dupont and Georgetown with a reliable and frequent option (and mobile trackable!) Can’t wait.
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Oh and wouldn’t it be great if the route were extended further into Washington – directly connecting Georgetown, Dupont, Adams-Morgan and U st.!
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