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COMMENTARY
The last cross-town bus: Part 2
(Published September 20, 2004)

By STEVE POSNIAK

Five years ago, I took The Common Denominator’s readers along with me on the last H-line Metrobus trip from Westmoreland Circle in Northwest Washington to Fort Lincoln in Northeast. Although the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) still operates something its calls the "Crosstown Line," it only goes from Tenleytown to the Brookland/Catholic University Metrorail station. The Northwest side replacement (the N-8) provides service from Wesley Heights (but not Westmoreland Circle) to the Tenleytown and Van Ness/UDC Metrorail stations. Evening and weekend headways (intervals between buses) on the N-8 are 45 to 50 minutes -- the worst service of any Metrobus line in the District.

Recently, American University sold a Glover Park apartment building for which it had rented out the units to AU graduate students. At the same time, it terminated the shuttle bus service it had provided for those students, who then asked WMATA, the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3B if Metro would provide a replacement service. WMATA’s and DDOT’s response to the request of AU grad students in Glover Park to replace that provided previously by AU did not follow proper notification procedures. Their proposal is to extend the N-8 Wesley Heights/Tenleytown/Van Ness-UDC loop route will have the following impacts:

1. Increase by up to seven minutes the travel time of riders going from the Metro stations to Wesley Heights;

2. Increase from 45 or 50 minutes to 60 minutes the headways (intervals between buses) on evenings and weekends;

3. Increase from 18 to 20 minutes the peak period headways. (They claim that the non-peak weekday headways will remain at 30 minutes, but do not explain how they will do this on a no-cost basis, given that the total trip time will increase by seven minutes.)

Only ANC 3B (which facilitated the AU student request) was formally notified of the proposal. ANCs 3C, 3D, 3E and 3F, whose areas also are served by the N-8, have not been notified. WMATA, DDOT, WMATA Board Members Jim Graham, Gladys Mack, David Catania, and Calvin Nophlin, as well as Ward 3 Councilwoman Kathy Patterson and At-Large council members Harold Brazil, Phil Mendelson and Carol Schwartz should ensure that DDOT and WMATA:

1. Come up with an alternative proposal (identifying the additional cost) which will reduce evening and weekend headways to no more than 30 minutes (there is no other D.C. Metrobus route with 50 minute headways at any time);

2. Present both proposals to duly noticed meetings of all affected ANCs;

3. Hold a duly noticed public hearing before implementing any proposal resulting in increased headways.

The genius behind the current proposal is David Erion of WMATA’s Office of Planning. Erion also came up with the notion of replacing H-line service between Westmoreland Circle and Tenleytown with the current N-8, thus moving from 30-minute to 50-minute evening/weekend headways. He also was responsible for rerouting half of the weekday Massachusetts Avenue Line (N-2s) off of the portion of Massachusetts from Westmoreland Circle to Ward Circle. Before that, he developed the concept of the N-6 (also known as the Ward Circle 500), which on evenings and weekends combines the N-2 and N-4 with a time-consuming double loop around Ward Circle. If there is a hell, Erion will spend eternity driving the N-6 and explaining to new passengers why they have to spend 15 extra minutes making the extra loop.

If the current version of the N-8 extension gets implemented, half of his time will be spent as a passenger who missed an evening/weekend N-8, which happened to run five minutes early (as they sometimes do) and in waiting 60 minutes for the next one to arrive.

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Posniak is an AU Park resident and former commissioner for ANC Single-Member District 3E-04 (1981 to 1986) and ANC SMD 3E-01 (1999 to 2000).