Word On The Street

EVOLVING CIRCULATOR: Changes are coming in March to the DC Circulator buses, drivers tell DC Bubble. While the Union Station--Georgetown line, which runs along K St., has been busy, the other line that runs along 7th St. is...well...not busy. (Often Im the only rider.)

To rebalance things, the sponsors of the bus are contemplating running the sucessful Union Station--Georgetown line later in the evening. Right now service stops at 9pm, but on weekends it could run later to accomodate Metrorail riders or it could travel further up Wisconsin Ave. Metrorail closes at 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays.

To boost ridership on north-south 7th St. line. The idea to improve the service is to make the Circulator actually go somewhere. Right now it follows the Green Line from the Waterfront to the Convention Center, where the Green Line runs. With all those Green line trains, DC Bubble wonders why no one rides the bus? Hmmmmm....

Under consideration is a route that would detour the 7th St. line along the mall to pick up tourists. Or maybe the bus would go all the way up to Howard University, where there are students. How about this idea, shifting the bus away from a corridor where there already is a similar Metrorail (Green line) service to a corridor, such as 16th st., where there is no metrorail? Hmmm...

The DC Circulator buses are new and clean. On both lines they run every five minutes or so. They contrast sharply with many Metrorail buses which are old and dirty.


One Liners:

End in sight for mortgage rate hikes possible. Minutes from the Dec. 13 open meeting reveals that policymakers see "tentative signs that activity was beginning to slow" in the real estate market. But, housing barometers don't suggest "a significant weakening" in housing activity, the minutes said. Many economists predict the Fed will bump up rates again at the next meeting, on Jan 31.