The DC Circulator is coming to its last stop.
The iconic red buses, which shuttled riders to high-traffic stops for just $1 a trip, will cease service on December 31, DC’s Department of Transportation announced Monday.
DDOT will begin phasing out service on October 1. The Circulator’s Dupont Circle to Rosslyn route is set to be eliminated that day, and late-night service on all routes will also be cut. Buses on all routes are set to run every 20 minutes, up from the current headway time of 10 minutes.
While the Circulator buses have been a ubiquitous presence since the service first launched in 2005, ridership cratered during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to DDOT data, the Circulator saw 5 million riders in fiscal year 2019; in FY2023, ridership was just under 2 million.
The failure to return to pre-pandemic ridership levels, as well as steadily-rising operating costs during a DC budget deficit, was enough for Mayor Muriel Bowser to propose axing Circulator service earlier this year. The DC Council concurred, and bus operators have been given written notice of the service’s end.
According to DDOT, the agency is working with Metro “to determine service levels to help reduce the impact to the public.” Some city officials have called on WMATA to take up a few of the Circulator’s unique routes—particularly the Georgetown-Union Station line, given the former neighborhood’s inaccessibility via public transit.
“The Committee recognizes the Circulator offers routes that are not currently replicated by WMATA service, and it does so at a very affordable price point,” DC Councilmember Charles Allen, chair of the transportation committee, wrote in a May 10 letter to council. “However, there is simply not available funding to restore the cuts to service.”
