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WMATA announced this morning that the new S9 Metrobus route, offering express bus service along 16th Street, will launch on Monday, March 30. A ribbon cutting ceremony has also been scheduled for 10 a.m. that morning, at the stop at 16th Street and Columbia Rd. NW. The S9 route will be serviced by blue and silver hybrid-electric buses, which will be branded separately with “express” labels to differentiate them from the S1, S2 and S4 routes.
The S9 will run every 10 minutes in peak periods on weekdays, from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The express service will stop at the following locations only, with an estimated time savings versus the regular S buses of about 8 minutes:
- Silver Spring Metro
- Eastern Avenue
- Kalmia Road
- Somerset Place/Sheridan Street
- Missouri Avenue
- Colorado Avenue
- Buchanan Street
- Spring Road
- Park Road
- Irving Street/Columbia Road
- Euclid Street
- U Street
- P Street
- M Street
- K Street
- 13th/14 Streets
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Sweet, all aboard the Hipster Express!
A hipster on the S line? That's rich. You don't ride buses much, do you?
gotta ask, am i the only one who read that and saw "hitler express"?
Wait! You mean there are no stops between K Street and M Street? I'll have to walk two whole blocks? Why does WMATA hate the elderly, the infirmed, and people who take up two seats with their ridiculously huge asses?
I also don't understand the 15 or so (usually obese) people who wait for my H1 bus everyday at the Foggy Bottom metro stop to travel 2 blocks to E street. Isn't astronomically quicker to just walk the two blocks? Two blocks! I'm going to start getting off the bus two blocks early just to prove my point.
All these meaningless bus routes. Where are the buses when you want to go to work? Why is my bus late every morning?
This morning there were 15 S2 Mcpherson Square buses, 5 S4 Federal Triangles, 7 37 Archive buses, and one very late 32
Naylor Road bus. Arrrgh~!
Express buses: the gateway drug to monorails.
What's it called?
Monorail!
Problem is, an "express" bus can only go as fast as the traffic it's gridlocked in. So I seriously doubt passengers will save that much touted 8 minutes. You could easily cover the distance from Silver Spring to K Street in 8 minutes using a monkey-navigated jetpack. Four minutes if the monkey was on fire. To quote Richard Pryor, "Fire is inspirational! They should use it in the Olympics. Because when you're on fire, people will get out of your way."
Being a professional busrider, I can tell you that if the driver is ahead of schedule, he will slow down. If he is behind, he will slow down. If you are late for work or an
appointment, a tourist will board the bus and ask for the bus to Georgetown. If you are hung-over and have a queasy stomach, you will see or smell something on the bus that will make you leave the bus. You are either on the bus or off the bus. Take it or leave it.
Well done reference to the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Deep!
On the other hand, I pick up the S1 at 16th & Newton at 8am. I have to cross 16th to do it and that light's on about a 60 cycle. I've seen the bus be at the stop before right as the light changed, let people on, trundle down the street and get stopped at the red light and allow me to cross the street and pick it up. Skipping stops really will speed things up in the long run, provided they can pass all the other S buses on the road. (That's a fairly big 'if' too)
In theory. But monkey-navigated invariably means taking the long way - you could probably shake hands with the new Senator from Minnesota before your monkey made it all the way down 16th street
Good god, man, it's always something with you, isn't it? "Express buses don't move fast." "Children throw rocks at me." "The water is poisonous." Boo f'ing hoo. Where did you grow up, Fantasia? Just because a place isn't perfect is no reason to complain. I mean, c'mon, it's been, what, like a year since children's services has acted so negligently that anyone died because of it. That's gotta count for something.
These buses would go a lot faster if they had handles on the outside so you could grab on Charlie Sheen and Emilio Esevez-style. Jump on, jump off.
Monorail? That's more of a Shelbyville idea!
Jokes about space between Metrobus stops aside, there is a long space where there are no stops, essentially the lower half of Brightwood and the entire Shepard Park neighborhood.
Kalima to Somerset Place is a big stretch without a stop. You'd think there would be a something at Walter Reed Hospital.
Since I get on in the middle of that stretch, this does little for me.
Shaving 8 minutes of total trip time does not resonate with my thoughts of an express bus.
Good, I thought I was the only one found the time saving a little bit less than jaw-dropping. If that 8 minutes has been breaking you, why not just get up a whole 8 minutes earlier?
Strictly speaking, this is not an express bus. Express would be if it went from Silver Spring to K St w/o stopping. This is a LIMITED STOP service.
I'm such a transit nerd.
My house and workplace are not directly located on this new bus route, so it's a terrible failure. Not just for WMATA, mind you, but also for the city and especially for Obama, who is clearly behind this development. He so hates his own people.
I work near the White House and live near U. 4 stops to home, baby, that's what I'm talking about!
I have to say, this will almost definitely be useless. With all the other buses on this route stopping every 20 goddamn feet, the 'express' bus will just get stuck behind them. I think a much better solution would be to cut out every other stop from the S2 or S4 routes. Then every bus would be an express. win/win/win
cheesenpeas: you're wrong here. see, the s9 buses can pass the other buses by utilizing these things on the road called the other lanes.
Usually buses on 16th (and 14th) stop and switch drivers near the bus depot on uppper 14th. Will this express bus be immune from these stops to switch drivers?