Metro changes plans for L1 and L2 bus routes after riders push back

Metro is dropping its plan to modify weekend L2 bus service and is no longer planning to eliminate the L1 bus line, after a majority of responses to its May survey revealed opposition to the proposals.

Survey respondents, Metro says, “overwhelmingly oppose” a weekend plan that would service bus stops between Chevy Chase Circle and Woodley Park every 20 minutes instead of the current 30 minutes between buses. This increase in north Connecticut Avenue service would be at the expense of service to Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle and Farragut North. The full L2 bus line would run only once per hour in each direction.

“Respondents like direct access to Downtown and the alternative to Metrorail,” says Metro.

Metro’s survey did not find as much opposition to its third proposal: to speed service by eliminating some bus stops. On the chopping block are the stops at Chesapeake Street, Yuma and Tilden Streets.

Metro revealed these updates and solicited more community feedback at a June 20th open house at the UDC Law School (4340 Connecticut Avenue). There, it displayed boards showing survey results and ridership statistics, as well as “bus stop alternative walking maps” for bus stops up for elimination.

Here’s the one for Chesapeake:

For Yuma:

For Tilden:

And here’s the graphic listing all the stops to be consolidated.

As for the bus routes, there will be no changes to the L2, and Metro is modifying its L1 proposal to address riders’ preference “to maintain direct access between Chevy Chase and Foggy Bottom while seeing improvements to on-time performance and ‘bus bunching’ (when bus run to close together instead of maintaining their time intervals).” Its current plan would:

Terminate the line at 21st Street and Virginia Avenue NW instead of continuing south on 23rd Street and east on Constitution Avenue NW. Discontinuing service along Constitution would aid in avoiding congestion.

Reroute northbound L1 trips to go around Dupont Circle and north on Connecticut Ave NW instead of its current route via Massachusetts and Florida Avenues NW.

Here’s the map of the revised proposal for routes L1 and L2.

If you were unable to attend the open house, Metro says you can call 703-340-3105 to leave a message with your feedback.

But don’t delay. The next steps, according to Metro: Finalize the proposals by the end of June, submit the recommendations to Metro’s board for consideration and approval in July, and implement any changes this September and June 2019.