EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!
There is a new Metrobus route that Metro hasn't announced!
BREAKING NEWS -- YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST
On most days, I bus to work - usually taking the 42 (or if I am lucky the H1) because both of them literally stop right outside my door. Hence why this article is of particular importance to me - and anyone else who rides the 42. Yesterday, I happened to notice a Metro truck sitting outside one of the 42's stops in Adams Morgan. Since it was nowhere near an actual Metrorail station, I figured they must be doing something at the stop, perhaps preparing for the installation of a shelter, or something else excited - but I honestly did not think much of it.
Last night, since it was so nice out - I decided to walk home. Normally on my walk home I don't follow the route of the 42, since it goes slightly out of the way of the convenient way home for me. But last night was special, I needed to pick up something on 18th Street in AdMo - so for the rest of my walk home I followed the 42 bus route, which runs along Columbia Road. I was walking on the North side of the street and happened to look up at the Metrobus stop sign ... and noticed something a little off. The usual suspects were up there - the 42 and the H1, but something new was between them ... the 43.
What -- the 43?? I know! I immediately wanted to know what it was and what it meant. I got home and headed right to the *NEW* WMATA website (sidebar: I kind of liked when metroopensdoors.com sent you to the little graphic of the train doors opening and then redirected to wmata.com) to search for the new 43 route. You know what ... this article is a waste of time, just go read about the bus on the website. OH WAIT! You can't!
That's right - the signage is up, the changes have been put in motion - but nothing on Metro's website. The route isn't mentioned on the maps or in the timetables, and there isn't even a press release about it. Shocking. So I made a call to WMATA's Office of Media Relations in order to get the deets ... surprisingly they actually had them, yet had just decided not to let the public know about this upcoming change.
Route 43 will go into effect on Sunday, December 28th. It will be a weekday rush hour only service, between 750am and 915am (meaning it will only run Southbound). About 1/2 of the buses currently designated as 42s will henceforth be badged as 43s. It will run between Mount Pleasant and Farragut Square. It seems to me that the 43 will just be the 42 buses that currently run between MtP and FSq - so there will be no service increases or reductions.
So this really wasn't the "extra, extra!" that was advertised ... no real changes - but it is exciting that there is a new bus in the neighborhood.
Tim.
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4 comments:
you ride the bus?.. that's new.
I'm not trying to be snotty, people (not me, but people) bike here in Europe instead of taking public transportation. I take the metro to work, mainly because they pump music into the stations and my ipod broke (sadness).
xo
I'm hoping that my desperate pleas have been heard and this 43 bus runs UNDER DuPont, cutting through all the bullshit/shitshow that is the circle.
I was at the Neighborhood Circulation meeting in Columbia Heights this past week and spoke to a WMATA planner. He told me that every second or third rush-hour 42 bus (southbound in the AM, northbound in the PM) would be converted to a 43 to terminate at Farragut Square and, yes, they would run under Dupont (yay!)
PAW: I bike to work too (it's faster) but the bus is always good for getting around, too...
Upon further search, quit yer complainin. WMATA posted this notice to its site on 12.12.08, linked from the front page of wmata.com:
http://www.wmata.com/bus/timetables/upcoming/upcoming_changes.cfm
42, NEW 43 Mount Pleasant Line
New weekday, rush hour only Route 43 buses will serve Mount Pleasant. Southbound buses will leave from Mount Pleasant and 17th streets NW (H8 bus stop) and continue via Mount Pleasant Street, Columbia Road, California Street (cut-off to Connecticut Avenue), Connecticut Avenue (using the underpass at Dupont Circle) and continue via Connecticut Avenue and 17th Street NW to the terminal stand north of I (Eye) Street. Southbound buses will not serve the stops on Connecticut Avenue at Q Street and Dupont Circle.
Northbound 43 buses will start on the north side of I (Eye) Street NW, west of 13th Street, then continue on I (Eye) Street to 17th Street and Connecticut Avenue. Buses will continue on Connecticut Avenue (using the underpass at Dupont Circle), then follow the current 42 bus route to the Mount Pleasant terminal at Lamont and Mount Pleasant streets NW. Northbound 43 buses will not serve stops on Connecticut Avenue at Dupont Circle, Q and 20th streets NW. New 43 service will replace approximately one-half of the current southbound Route 42/ buses from Mount Pleasant to Farragut Square between 7:50 and 9:15 a.m., and 42 buses from Farragut Square between 3:20 and 7 p.m.
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