Metro's board will be holding a full public hearing today on the future of the city's most circulated lines, the 30s. The current set of six routes run east to west along Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Avenues, and carry over 20,000 passengers a day from residential areas in Northwest and Southeast to downtown commercial districts - but unfortunately, the routes suffer from a lot of stops and gos along the way, stalling pick up times and elongating rides.

As a result of a year and a half of feasibility studies and the solicitation of rider opinions, Metro is hoping to initiate the following changes:

Old Routes:
32, 36 - Routes and schedules would stay the same.
30, 34, 35 - Routes would be eliminated.

New Routes:
M5 - a new Southeast route would run from between Eastern Market and Naylor Road Metro stations - essentially a shorter version of the old 34.
31 - a similar Northwest track, spanning from Friendship Heights Metrorail station to Washington Circle.

New Super Awesome Happy Fun Routes:
37 - Would run between Friendship Heights and Archives Navy-Memorial stations via Massachusetts Avenue
39 - Naylor Road station to Washington Circle

The super awesome happy fun part? These two buses would service only 10 of 27 bus stops, and would operate only during rush hours.

For those of us who happen to be visual learners - or for those who don't feel like following a paragraph of text about bus routing - maps of the old and new routes are available.

The changes, if ratified by Metro's board of directors, would likely go into effect in the early summer months, just about when the air conditioning fueled renaissance of bus riding usually commences. What do you think about these proposed changes? Are more rush hour/express buses the answer to sluggish schedules?

After the jump, there's a large discrepancy in proposed funding levels for a certain national transportation system, and yet more parking developments by the new stadium, plus your usual weekend Red line delay reminder.

Photo by tzakielmuto.

Amtrak, Bush Administration Not Close on Funding: Amtrak has always been an important part of region's transportation infrastructure. Though it managed to get through a sticky labor union contract negotiation earlier this year and avoid a massive strike, things aren't all sunshine and cookies for the much-maligned national rail line. The Examiner reported that Amtrak is requesting $1.67 billion in funding for the next fiscal year, twice what the federal government is willing to offer. While a strike would have shut down important links between Washington and Baltimore - not to mention the entire Northeast Corridor - the funding difference could have a similar effect, limiting routes and services in one of the most heavily trafficked railways in the country. While we could ask exactly how much more limited the services on Amtrak could be, we'll keep quiet and hope that the two sides can reach a compromise.

Nationals Stadium: Where We Might Be Able To Park Some Season Ticket Holders: Right on the heels of our declaration of The Year of the Great Parking Debate, there's word that WMATA will be leasing out 350 parking spaces to the Nationals on the site of their Southeast bus garage. Heck, for the paltry sum of $1.4 million, an extra 350 spaces seems like an absolute steal this late in the process. This lease will up the total number of parking spaces available on site at the stadium to about 5,500.

Although, we're curious - what ever happened to the advertising campaign that will encourage people to take Metro, which was announced on February 6? Opening Night is a mere 31 days away - time's a tickin', Nats management.

Just In Case You Didn't Believe Us Last Time: We tried to warn you about it last week, but in case you forgot or didn't care: riding the Red line for the next three weekends is pretty much going to be a living hell. If you're feeling lucky, just remember that anytime Metro uses the phrase "major track rehabilitation," you're seriously tempting fate by blindly going underground. Of course, for you lucky people with mobile internet, Meenster is highly recommended.

Seriously, that's one sign that means business. Be sure to add in adequate travel time to where ever you're heading this weekend if it involves Red line travel.