This fall, the D.C. Circulator is making its final trips, leaving Georgetown students with fewer affordable transit options to get around the city.
The Circulator, buses between major neighborhoods and monuments throughout the city, will roll back services starting Oct. 1, and will be fully out of service by the end of the year. The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced the changes in a press release at the end of July.
The Circulator’s Rosslyn-Dupont route, which runs through the Georgetown neighborhood, will be the first to go; the route will be completely eliminated on Oct. 1. Additionally, up until their termination at the end of the year, the remaining Circulator routes will run on 20 instead of 10 minute intervals and will end their service at 9 p.m. rather than midnight.
The changes will further limit Georgetown students’ access to public transportation, as the Georgetown neighborhood has few bus lines and no metro station. While students can still use Metrobus lines and the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle, the Circulator has been one of the more convenient options to access downtown D.C. and other parts of the District.
The plan to eliminate the Circulator was first proposed by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in April. It was one of several cuts meant to close a $700 million budget gap in the District’s 2025 budget. Other changes to help close the budget gap this year include modifying some Metrobus routes and increasing transit fares.
The decision to cut the service was partly driven by the fact that Circulator ridership has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, whereas ridership on Metrobuses—Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) buses which service the entire D.C. metro area—has recovered. Last year, revenue from the Circulator, which charges $1 per ride, recouped only five percent of its $40 million operating budget, according to reporting from The Washington Post.
“As services wind down, DDOT is working with Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to determine service levels to help reduce the impact to the public,” the DDOT, which operates the Circulator, announced in its press release.
The elimination of the Circulator comes amidst other changes to public transportation in D.C. and the Georgetown neighborhood.
In June, Metrobus and rail base fares increased from $2 to $2.25 per ride, another measure to close the gap in the District’s budget.
WMATA also announced the Better Bus Network proposal to change the entire system by 2025, including alterations to the G2 and D6 Metrobus lines that are closest to Georgetown’s campus.
The G2, while no longer being eliminated, would be renamed the D92 under the plan, with a modified route through the Georgetown neighborhood. The D92 would reach Union Station, offering an alternative to the Georgetown-Union Station Circulator line. The D6 would be renamed to the D94 and have less service during rush hour.
By the end of the year, DDOT will lay off 276 employees as a result of the Circulator’s elimination. In August, Circulator workers held two “Save the Circulator” rallies in Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue. Demonstrators expressed their concerns about how it might be difficult for Circulator drivers who have been working with the service for a long time to find new jobs.
Despite community pushback, the city is moving forward with its plans.
