Results tagged “buses”

Earlier this month, we told you about a new discount bus service that planned to start offering non-stop service from D.C. to Wilmington, Philadelphia and Boston. Originally, TransportAzumah planned to launch all of its new D.C. lines by today, but an ominous message has since appeared on the company's web site reporting that all trips from D.C. have been canceled until further notice. That's bad news for folks who had been hoping to take advantage of the new service for the holiday weekend.

Our friends over at Greater Greater Washington asked us if we'd point our readers to a little usability test they've created in an attempt to compare the old WMATA bus map with the new one. Metro apparently rolled out a new bus map recently without advertising it. Here's what David Alpert says is different about it:

The biggest change is in the color coding of lines. Before, lines got one of several colors to distinguish them, though there were still several red line groups, several green groups, etc. Now, all lines that stay within DC are all red, lines entirely in Virginia purple, and lines that cross borders get different colors.

The folks at NextBus have just released an application for the BlackBerry, available for $2.99 at this link. It appears to work somewhat similarly to the iPhone version, which we reviewed earlier this year. BlackBerry users, be sure to let us know how it works for you.

New York businessman Joel Azumah wrote to DCist today to let us know that his discount bus line, modestly dubbed TransportAzumah, will be launching several new routes servicing D.C. this month. Refreshingly, these routes will not be servicing New York. Instead, Azumah plans to offer non-stop bus service from D.C. to Wilmington, Philadelphia and Boston.

You have to feel sorry for the 15-year-old son of Vienna's Jenifer Joy Madden, who got outed by his mom in an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post for having only just now learned how to ride a bus.

We couched it as another test of their mettle. After all, if these 15-year-olds could swing at objects flying 90 miles an hour and get whacked by titanium lacrosse sticks, they could walk to a bus stop and ride a few miles across town.

Following the introduction earlier this year of Where's My Bus?, the real-time mobile bus arrival application for the DC Circulator bus system, today the District Department of Transportation announced the launch of its own Circulator iPhone app, available for download for $0.99 from the iTunes Store.

It feels like it was only a couple weeks ago that the District Department of Transportation confirmed that they would be altering the Georgetown Circulator bus route so that it no longer traveled north on Wisconsin Ave. And the official announcement of the change, wasn't that just last week? Yes, and, oh yeah, that's right. But this morning, city officials announced that they have changed their minds, and the current Circulator route will stay intact.

In light of the deadly accident that killed nine people on Metro's Red Line on June 22, there's been plenty of talk about what's wrong with Metro -- and rightfully so; the agency is now at a obvious turning point in its history, where it suddenly needs to navigate a calamitous disaster and forge some sort of path regarding its future.

One day into to the official relaunch of WMATA's Next Bus service, and we've heard a lot positive feedback from bus riders about the usefulness of the system. But some problems with the real-time Metrobus arrival tool are already apparent.

Metro is relaunching Next Bus on Wednesday, July 1. The service originally debuted about two years ago, but WMATA wasn't happy with its accuracy, which it said was only about 80 percent, so they shut down the pilot program in October 2007. After spending almost two years making upgrades, Next Bus is back, and we want to hear from bus riders as they try out the improved real-time Metrobus locating system.

While Metrobus users have been eagerly awaiting the official July re-launch of NextBus, DDOT and Mayor Adrian Fenty announced today that Circulator riders now have a mobile application, dubbed "Where's My Bus?", that allows smartphone users to track Circulator buses in real time. All you have to do is go to http://circulator.dc.gov/ from any mobile device (the url works in any browser, really), select the Circulator route and bus stop, and it'll tell you where the closest bus is.

Metro's board today caved to mounting pressure to avoid massive Metrobus service cuts and voted to make only $2.5 million worth of cuts instead of $13.6 million, reports Lena Sun in the Post. In order to make up for a predicted budget shortfall, the board voted 5-1 to dip into the agency's so-called rainy day fund, which currently holds $13.3 million.

Both WTOP and the Examiner are reporting that free bus rides in Northern Virginia on Code Red air quality days will be a thing of the past this summer. The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission this week voted to end the program, in place since 1999, that offered free bus rides around Northern Virginia to help reduce vehicle emissions on days of critical air quality. The reason? Duh, it's too expensive, costing Northern Virginia over $2.5 million a year. It looks like some Maryland counties, however, including Montgomery, Prince George’s and Frederick, will continue the program this summer from May 1 through Sept. 15.

The low cost bus business has certainly boomed over the last couple of years. While the Peter Pan/Greyhound and various Chinatown bus lines have been offering cheapo rides from D.C. to New York City and Philadelphia for a long time, they now compete with a long list of newcomers, many of whom offer extras like free wireless internet or leather seats. Megabus, the Greyhound-operated BoltBus, Vamoose, and DC2NY are just some of the companies hoping to lure you to inexpensive East Coast travel. And now a D.C.-based team of developers has launched a new site, BusJunction.com, that allows you to search all of their schedules at once.

      

The "soft" part of the launch of the city's new Circulator bus routes came to an end today, as D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), and DDOT acting director Gabe Klein all came out to 18th Street and Columbia Road NW this morning for an official ceremony to kickoff the new bus lines.

We've been pestering DDOT for more details on the two new Circulator routes the city has planned, one that would travel through Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights, U Street and McPherson Square, replacing the 25 cent 98 bus that used to go between U Street and Adams Morgan, and another that would run from Union Station, through Barracks Row to Nationals Park, replacing the N22 bus. Last week, the Washington Business Journal's Jonathan O'Connell dubbed the new routes "Party Lines,", and offered up a homemade Google map of the proposed Adams Morgan route. But with no official routes or stop listings yet announced by DDOT, only vague dates for when they'll begin running (sometime this spring?), and zero information about them available on dccirculator.com, reliable details on the new Circulator lines are still hard to come by.

Back in December we reported that BoltBus and Megabus had moved their stop from 11th Street NW just above G Street to around the corner on G Street NW between 9th and 10th, right next to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library. The move sparked a little bit of controversy, as it wasn't clear whether the location was any better in terms of interrupting traffic, and some customers were reportedly uncomfortable with its proximity to the soup kitchen across the street. Well Penn Quarter Living reports that after Megabus relocated a third time, to 9th Street NW just above H Street along the side of the old convention center site, as of today BoltBus will follow them there. BoltBus's web site confirms the move to 9th and H Streets at the old convention center parking lot.

You've got a car. But hey, you're not planning on driving anywhere during Inaugural weekend. So no problems, right? Well, maybe.

Penn Quarter Living reminds us that as of Monday, popular discount bus lines BoltBus and MegaBus moved their shared stop two blocks from its previous location, from 11th Street NW just above G Street to around the corner on G Street NW between 9th and 10th. With the rush to get out of town for Christmas in full swing today, do note the change if you're riding one of these two bus lines up I-95. You'll recall that back in June, DDOT attempted to relocate all commercial bus lines to a single location at L'Enfant Plaza, but later backed off the plan due to public outcry. Do you think this new G Street location makes a better bus stop than 11th Street? Neither DC2NY nor any of the Chinatown lines have moved their stops.

WTOP is reporting that Joshua Stoll and Michael Feiock, the two men who died in July when their heads hit an overpass while riding on the roof of an Open Top Sightseeing bus shuttling fans to Nationals Park, were legally drunk when they died. Police believe both men were standing on the seats at the time of the crash. Open Top is still operating its regular tour buses in D.C., but its Nationals shuttles have been suspended since the accident.

You had to know this was coming. Open Top Sightseeing, the bus company that operates the Nationals shuttle on which two people died on Friday night when their heads hit an overpass, is suspending the service for the time being. Open Top wouldn't talk with reporters for a couple days after the accident, but their lawyer, Jim Rodio, has since spoken to the Associated Press, and this is the first time we've seen an answer to the obvious question: did the two men who died know they needed to stay seated during the entire ride? Rodio says the company instructs passengers seated on the roof of the bus to remain seated during rides. Of course, whether the passengers on this particular bus received those instructions remains to be seen. Police are investigating. Open Top is still operating its regular tour buses in D.C.

Metro maintenance can be disruptive. It's not a secret - weekend work is something that can really throw a wrench into your plans. You've often commented wondering why Metro has to take weekends, sometimes many in a row, to fix a track switch. Well in case you missed the Post's awesome Commuter graphic this week, make sure to check it out to get a feel for how much labor and intricate planning actually goes into something as "simple" as switch work.

The Examiner yesterday brought us the unfortunate news that Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham is putting a temporary kibosh on the long-planned first phase of DDOT's streetcar plans. The first stage of the plan - noted as "Anacostia Phase 1" on the map to your right - would link Bolling Air Force Base to Anacostia Metro station. The line's a vital part of the District's long-term plans to connect the majority of Southeast to the rest of the city.

Last week, we learned that DDOT was planning on creating an "intercity bus loading zone" near L'Entant Plaza in Southwest - many of you found the idea rash, unnecessary, and potentially deadly for bus businesses. Well, you can at least take solace in the fact that Greater Greater Washington's David Alpert is on your side. Alpert has created a website which asks District officials to, at the very least, sit down and talk with residents about the pros and cons of the installation of the depot at L'Enfant before going forward with the plan. The site also includes a form which you can use to send a letter to the agency to display your distaste (or agreement) with the pilot program. DDOT will be only accepting comments for a few more days, so get typing.

We know you love being able to grab a cheap bus to New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other destinations along the east cost. Entrepreneurs know it too, which is why we've kept track of an explosion in new intercity bus options recently, including BoltBus, Megabus, and DC2NY, along with the traditional Chinatown buses. But with so many more buses picking up and dropping off in several areas of downtown, the District Department of Transportation has taken notice of safety and congestion concerns, and is now planning to force all such buses to load in a single “intercity bus zone” in Southwest.

Somehow we missed the news that UK-based Megabus.com (which began its first service in the U.S. in Chicago in 2006) began running low-cost bus service between D.C. and New York on May 30. We spotted this Megabus bus stop sign outside Metro Center on Friday.

Remember yesterday, when we noted that the Federal Transit Administration's tool for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of transit projects was slightly out of whack? Well, it looks like it's got some company in the "crazy" department, with new FTA regulations that effectively end Metro's ability to operate shuttle buses from stations to highly-traveled destinations.

Just a few days after Metro's board gave preliminary approval to the restructuring of the 30s bus lines, the Examiner has a story reporting that Metro General Manager John Catoe is now shifting his attention toward improving Metrobus service after spending his first year focusing mainly on Metrorail.

The Washington Business Journal tips us off to a new entrant in the discount bus service from D.C. to New York market. BoltBus, a division of Greyhound Lines Inc., began selling tickets tickets through its web site on Monday, and launches its service on March 27.