Washington, D.C. regional transit authority WMATA is now in the process of replacing Metrobus signs throughout Montgomery County, including the ones you see here in Bethesda and Silver Spring. The new signs sport the new route designations for Metrobus lines. Every Metrobus route in Montgomery County will now be an "M" route, instead of T, Q, or J, for example. The M stands for...Montgomery County.
Fairfax County routes will start with an "F." Prince George's County gets "P." Arlington and Alexandria have to share "A." D.C. routes will be "D" for downtown, or "C" for crosstown. Express routes will start with an "X."
It seems the famously-impoverished WMATA that is always extending its hat for Oliver Twist's proverbial "more" is suddenly flush with cash it doesn't know what to do with. That has spurred it to go in search of a solution in search of a problem. Nobody was confused about the existing route numbers; they're going to be really confused by the new route numbers.
Two sets of new bus stop signs will be manufactured - one temporary, and one permanent after June 29, the day of the official switchover. The cost of replacing all of the signage is massive, and is being drawn from WMATA's Better Bus Network budget. A "better" use of our tax money is to refund the amount being spent on the name changes to the taxpayers of the D.C. region.
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| Turns out, WMATA is "really, really rich" |
They're also altering bus routes and eliminating about 600 fairly redundant bus stops. Personally, I'd complain about our County Executive relentlessly promoting his pet "BRT" lines while cutting express Metrobus routes that are actually useful.
ReplyDeleteThis article reads as if it were written by someone who has zero idea how WMATA works.
ReplyDelete1. The previous route names were confusing to people who haven't spent a significant amount of time in the area. Z lines run on 29, Q lines run on Veirs Mill Road, and every other letter has some random qualifier with no consistency of where the letter appears in the number. WMATA ran a survey at the start of the network overhaul and are merely working with the feedback they were given.
2. " The cost of replacing all of the signage is massive" says who?? source? genuinely curious for this one. I'm sure it's expensive, but "massive?" lol
3. Operational funds and capital funds are not the same thing. WMATA has been struggling with operational funds. The redesign funding very likely came from capital funds.