Students living at the Capitol Campus are pushing to expand the Georgetown University Transportation System’s (GUTS) bus hours joining them to the Hilltop campus. GUSA Senator Olivia Mason (CAS ’26) brought this concern to the GUSA Senate meeting on March 23, stating that the extended GUTS bus hours are essential to helping the two campuses integrate.
Until May 9, the Office of Transportation Management (OTM) is offering extended evening GUTS hours for the Capitol Campus route. With the extended schedule, two additional buses would depart from the Hilltop Bus Turnaround, with the latest leaving at 11:00 p.m. instead of 10:15 p.m. However, some Capitol Campus students believe that the extended hours are not enough, and that better transportation options are needed to make the Capitol Campus more accessible.
A university spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Voice that changes to GUTS scheduling are made based on ridership.
“The Office of Transportation Management monitors ridership patterns and makes adjustments as needed,” the spokesperson wrote.
Over the next few years, the first graduating classes of two Georgetown programs, the Joint Program in Public Policy and the B.S. in Environment and Sustainability, will move onto the Capitol Campus for their required third and fourth years Downtown. As programming expands, the need for increased GUTS transportation access and availability is more important than ever, some students say.
GUTS buses connect students on the Capitol Campus to the Hilltop Campus both academically and socially. Francin Vasquez (CAS ’25) relies on GUTS buses to commute to classes and her job.
“Now that I’m in the CALL campus, I check the bus schedule like every day, kind of memorized it. I check it every day and it’s what keeps you connected to the main campus,” Vasquez said. “It basically works as the bridge between the two.”
Main campus students also rely on GUTS buses to shuttle them to and from the Rosslyn and Dupont metro stations, the Capitol, and elsewhere in D.C.
“Georgetown has always complained about the ‘Georgetown bubble,’ and now that you have the chance to expand the bubble,” Vasquez said. “We really need the GUTS system to be able to connect to D.C.”
Mason emphasized that with the number of Georgetown students seeking internships off-campus, the GUTS buses are important for facilitating their professional goals.
“Students have internships, they have jobs, they have lives, they have things that they want to do,” Mason said. “There’s a reason why we came to this city, or we chose to stay in this city for some of us, and we deserve to have free transportation with how much we’re paying in tuition.”
While GUTS buses are a convenient and free option for students, the university spokesperson emphasized that the Capitol Campus is also accessible via public transport.
“The Capitol Campus is also easily accessible by Metro bus and rail lines. It is a short walk from both the Union Station and Judiciary Square stops on the Red Line,” the spokesperson wrote.
Since the 2019–20 school year, Georgetown has increased tuition by almost $16,000. Mason argues that this increase should contribute to increases in GUTS funding, especially given the closure of several public bus routes that serve Georgetown, including the D.C. Circulator.
“Once the Circulator shut down, GUTS should have absolutely stepped up. And the fact that it required student initiative to do that is a little bit disappointing,” Mason said.
Mason said that she met with OTM to voice students’ demands for increased GUTS scheduling.
“There was a meeting that was scheduled with the Office of Transportation Management to discuss the future of GUTS bus scheduling. In that meeting, I brought forward the bill that [GUSA] passed,” Mason told the Voice.
Initially, the OTM only offered the extended evening hours for express shuttles to the Capitol Campus from March 10 to March 30. However, Mason said that after their meeting, the OTM opted to continue operating on an extended basis through May 9.
According to Mason, the OTM agreed to fund the increased hours this semester, but said it could not finance the increase for the 2025-2026 academic year; the university spokesperson did not confirm or deny this information.
While there are currently no weekend GUTS routes to the Capitol Campus, the weekend routes to Rosslyn and Dupont Circle are funded by the Division of Student Affairs, not OTM.
“Honestly, it really is a huge ask financially for them to extend it further than the rest of the year,” Mason said. “My next priority going forward is looking at how we can fundraise or possibly—and I hate this—increase the student activities fee to try and compensate for this increase in transportation,” Mason said.
Mason believes the OTM should be responsible for creating convenient student transportation.
“What other transportation is Georgetown University putting out besides GUTS?” Mason said. “If they’re refusing to purchase some of these extended hours, why and where is that money going toward?”
Students say that increasing transportation access to the Capitol Campus will ultimately help make it more attractive to students and faculty. With the campus facing a potential deficit of $91.4 million between fiscal years 2025 to 2028, according to details from a February Faculty Senate meeting, some students believe improved transportation to encourage Hoyas to study Downtown should be more of a priority.
“The CALL campus already struggles to get students because I feel like for the general Georgetown student, they’re not used to commuting,” Vasquez said. “I definitely believe that it’s going to impact the students who first apply in the first place and also their ability to connect to the main campus, because everything’s still over there.”
According to Vasquez, the Capitol Campus can only expand if Georgetown’s transportation system expands to meet demands.
“If you’re going to keep expanding Downtown, you need to make Downtown reachable,” Vasquez said.
