Meaningful Route Numbers? Guess Again.

By Robert Thomson
Sunday, December 30, 2007

Dr. Gridlock:

Can you help explain the naming of Metrobus routes? They make no sense whatsoever. Some are numerical, some have letters and numbers and all don't correspond with where they are going. If a bus (named the S1, S2, S4) goes up and down 16th Street, why not call it the 16-1, etc.?

Chris Panetta

Adams Morgan

I had hoped to share with you some memory trick, some way of knowing what bus to look for and why, no matter where you are.

That's not going to happen, said David Erion, a bus operations specialist with Metro. The numbers and letters on buses don't correspond to the streets they travel or the type of service they provide. They are a part of history that Metro was reluctant to disturb for fear of confusing the many riders who knew where they were going.

"There were four private companies before Metro, privately owned," Erion said. "Each had its own numbering system."

D.C. Transit, which operated in the District, Montgomery County and a little piece of Prince George's, used two naming systems. The old streetcar lines, later replaced by buses, had numbers with no letters. Bus routes were identified by a letter and a number.

There was some relation to geography. The streetcar lines started their numbers in Northwest Washington and swept clockwise around D.C. Transit's territory. The bus route names went the opposite way, starting in Southeast Washington and sweeping counterclockwise.

WMA Transit, serving most of Prince George's, named its routes with letters followed by numbers. In Virginia, two bus companies used naming systems with numbers followed by letters.

"When Metro took over, we just kept all of that in place," Erion said. The bus riders of that era, more than three decades ago, knew what bus to look for.

We commuters have our habits. I remember the March Monday when Metrobus introduced the MetroExtra, a limited-stop service along Georgia Avenue. The buses have a distinctive design and their own number, 79. Metro put guides along the route to explain the new bus and distinguish it from the other Metrobuses.

Yet at nearly every stop, drivers had to answer questions from confused passengers.

"Periodically, someone will suggest renumbering of the entire system -- trying to apply some logic to it," Erion said. But the logistics and cost would be daunting: 13,000 bus stops with signs noting route numbers, plus all the timetables and bus maps. "So we keep going along with the same hodgepodge."

Metrobus does make changes on the routes to improve service, or at least get the schedules to match reality. Sunday is such a day. The transit authority is tweaking service on more than three dozen bus routes across the region. The long list is posted on Metro's Web site, http://www.wmata.com.

Help From the Top

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

On Dec. 18, I was trying to add $20 to my SmarTrip card at the Shady Grove station, and for some reason the fare machine was unable to do it. The station manager tried also, and when he failed, he gave me the necessary form to request a refund. He also said that I might want to stop at Metro Center to get the refund quickly because sending it in would take several weeks.

Since I was on my way to Crystal City for a meeting, I stopped on my way back and asked a Metro employee where I should go for the refund. She immediately asked to see the form and began filling in the remainder of it. A tall, distinguished gentleman with her asked if he could take the form to be approved. He said that he is the general manager of Metro. He gave me his card and told me that if I didn't hear from Metro by Friday to call him.

I had a call from Metro on the 20th that I can have the $20 credited to my card the next time I am at a station.

I would like to commend the almost instantaneous service from Mr. John Catoe, our new Metro general manager, and the courteous manner in which Metro employees handled this incident.

Daniel Moore

Montgomery Village

John B. Catoe Jr., who is completing his first year on the job, is a frequent user of the transit system he manages and often talks with employees and customers along the way.

Dr. Gridlock appears Thursday in the Extras and Sunday in the Metro section. You can send e-mails todrgridlock@washpost.com. Include your name, home community and phone numbers.