The D.C. Council made one last chess move in the transportation realm Monday, ahead of its first vote on the overall budget the next day.

Chairman Phil Mendelson put in $12 million to fund a dozen overnight Metrobus routes and he reversed Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to cut three D.C. Circulator bus routes. He also stood firm on delaying the K Street Transitway, allocating $8 million to re-plan the project that has been mired in fights over how to use the lane space.

The 24/7 bus routes include the 32, 33, 52, 70, 90, 92, A6/A8, H4, S2, V2, W4, and X2. They would run every 20 minutes overnight beginning in January if everything goes well. The council would still need to make an agreement with Metro and Metro would likely need to hire more operators to run the service.

In a press conference Monday, Mendelson noted that the overnight routes serve most of the city, but especially service downtown, which will be key for that neighborhood’s recovery from the COVID pandemic that has hollowed out office buildings.

Mendelson also proposed restoring three D.C. Circulator bus routes back into the budget for the next year: the Woodley-McPherson Square Metro, Eastern Market-L’Enfant Plaza, and Rosslyn-Dupont Circle lines. Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed cutting those to routes amid rising costs and tighter overall budget constraints this year. Mendelson restored the routes because he says it would contribute to the downtown recovery. Other councilmembers also wanted to restore the routes, so he decided to fund it for a year and figure out the problem next year.

The transportation budget has faced a dizzying array of changes in the last six months.

Last December, it appeared the District was on its way to funding fare-free bus service for anyone boarding in D.C. The funding mechanism, using extra revenue above projections, didn’t pan out. Then council said it would fund it in a different way. Then, the issue got caught in a political fight between the mayor and the council. Bowser was concerned about the cost of helping non-District residents. Then finally in May, the Metro board of directors asked D.C. to put that on hold while they take a more regionally-holistic look at the idea.

The Transitway also has been a source of back and forth in recent weeks. Councilmember Charles Allen said the idea was outdated now that downtown has drastically changed since the initial plan. Mendelson’s budget includes $8 million to revamp the plan. The transitway originally included two bus-only lanes, plus bike lanes and car lanes. Then DDOT moved the bike lanes to other streets. Bowser pitched a version that had six car lanes, now she’s selling a version that has four lanes.

Now, the whole thing is likely to go back to the drawing board.