GUTS bus service on weekend nights will resume on this weekend. Though the extended bus is much needed, it is still not enough to connect Georgetown students to the city.
The GUTS bus transports people for free between campus and the Metro during the week. Despite years of promises to expand services, however, the only weekend service so far this semester has been a Saturday bus alternating between Dupont Circle and Rosslyn from noon to 6 p.m.
Starting this Saturday, GUTS buses will be providing transportation until 6 p.m. Afterwards, Abe’s Transportation will take over, providing service to Dupont Circle until midnight. On Sundays, service provided by Abe’s will run from noon to 4 p.m., essentially the same as last year, according to Student Association President Ben Shaw (COL ‘08).
The online schedule currently lists only the new Saturday service.
Bus service on the weekend pales in comparison to other nearby universities not directly served by the Metro. American University’s shuttle runs until 3:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, said Kate Ifabanwo, customer relations representative for AU’s Transportation Services. She also noted that AU service lasts all semester and throughout the summer. At Howard University, the last weekend shuttle leaves the Metro for its campus at 2:30 a.m.
Shaw said that he has been in negotiations with Abe’s Transportation, a GUTS sub-contractor. “Not all the details are worked out,” he said.
Lynn Hirschfeld, Senior Business Manager of Student Affairs, said that the weekend bus, along with the extended Saturday night and Sunday afternoon buses which started last year, has been very successful.
“We have seen ridership go up every year on the weekend service,” she said.
A lack of bus service forces students to rely on less convenient and more confusing Metrobuses or expensive cabs, discouraging students from discovering what the District has to offer.
“If there were a big demand, then I would certainly consider it,” Shaw said when asked if the Student Association would push for more bus service until the close of the Metro system.
The afternoon service provided by GUTS, which Student Affairs pays for, costs between $600 and $650 per day, according to Hirschfeld.
Though she did not know how much the later Abe’s service cost, which is also funded through Student Affairs, “we can assume it’s similar,” she said.
Georgetown still does a poor job with providing students opportunities to get into D.C. on the weekends, especially as they crack down on parties on and off campus. Providing decent bus service that matches the Metro schedule should not be that hard; other universities already provide it.
This is not the first time there have been complaints about weekend service, and until Georgetown provides service that matches Metro, it will not be the last.
