Photo by Chris Rief

Metro has backed off on a plan to cut service along two bus lines in Southeast D.C. after residents and elected officials questioned the transit agency’s claims that buses were being pelted by rocks.

The segment of the W6/W8 bus route that would be discontinued after 8 p.m.

In October, Metro proposed cutting a segment of the routes run by the W6 and W8 buses because of multiple incidents in which buses were allegedly hit with rocks. According to the proposal, the buses—which start at the Anacostia Metro station and drive a loop through Ward 8—would stop turning into two residential neighborhoods off of Stanton Road after 8 p.m., the place and time where Metro said the incidents have occurred.

A few weeks later, though, Mayor Vince Gray and members of the D.C. Council criticized the plan, saying that Metro had not substantiated the claims that the rock-throwing incidents happened often enough to merit cutting the routes. And ahead of a community meeting on the proposal yesterday, writes the Post, Metro backed off on the plan altogether:

Jack Requa, Metro’s head of bus services, said the agency heard the concerns from District officials and decided to withdraw the plan after getting a commitment from D.C. police and Transit Police to provide enhanced service along the route.

“After we heard the input from the community and the police agencies, we believe it is worthwhile trying to keep the service here and try to all work together,” Requa said at the meeting. “We think we can get ridership back up, and things will be safer and things will be better all around.”

Still, a report Metro provided to Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) says that the W buses have suffered from more safety-related incidents this year than other bus lines in the city. That being said, buses that run along Wisconsin Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue have also seen their fair share of problems.