The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is slated to cut back on bus service in the Capitol Hill area starting this weekend.

Buses are scheduled to stop running on the 93 route beginning Sunday, according to WMATA. The 34 route that day also is set to lose bus service on Saturdays and Sundays and after 9:19 p.m. on weekdays.

The 93 route travels from Adams Morgan to Congress Heights, venturing onto Florida Avenue and 8th Street on its way through Capitol Hill. Its journey through the Capitol Hill area follows the path of the 90 and 92 routes, which are slated to receive more early morning and late evening buses.

The 34 route runs from downtown to the Naylor Road Metro station, traveling on Pennsylvania and Independence avenues SE as it traverses Hill East and Capitol Hill. The path of the bus through those neighborhoods is the same as the 32 and 36 routes.

WMATA said it ended the 93 route “due to low ridership.” But it didn’t elaborate on why it cut back service on the 34 route.

Metrobus operating normal service on all routes, Feb 16.

— Metrobus Info (@Metrobusinfo) February 16, 2016

The ice is starting to melt, and Metro says buses have resumed normal service today.

Though the transit agency previously estimated some of its lines would run on detours this morning, Metro reported that all buses were running normally as of 7:20 a.m. today.

Metro previously enacted its “severe snow plan” due to yesterday’s winter weather, and the agency suspended service at 10 p.m. last night.

Although patches of ice remain scattered across the area, the Capital Weather Gang says warmer temperatures and possibly heavy rainfall will thaw roads throughout the morning and afternoon.

But all that extra moisture could be too much of a good thing, according to the National Weather Service. The area is under a flood watch until 11 p.m.

Teenagers fooling around in front of a Hill East public charter school might leave a stretch of East Capitol Street SE without a bus stop.

The Center City Public Charter Schools campus at 1503 East Capitol St. SE is pushing the District to remove a Metrobus stop in front of its entrance, where crowds of older teens who don’t go to the school often congregate. Center City serves students from preschool to eighth grade.

Joseph Speight, the school’s principal, said at a community meeting last night that it is “overcrowded” by people weekday afternoons. He noted students are “randomly walking out into the street” and misbehaving.

“It is very much so becoming unsafe for children — not just our children, but just children in that area,” Speight said at an ANC 6B transportation committee meeting.

The bus stop is two blocks from Eastern High School and across the street from The Cupboard market and the Hong Kong Carryout Chinese eatery, where students from the school often visit when they’re done with classes.

Rachel Skerritt, Eastern’s principal, said she supports the elimination of the stop.

“I’m definitely not blind or unaware of some of the challenges in terms of behavior issues and dismissal nonsense of students from all schools in the area,” she said.

Removing the stop would force eastbound riders of the 97 and B2 bus lines to use the stop at East Capitol and 17th streets SE, or East Capitol and 14th streets SE, instead.

The ANC panel did not vote on the proposal to eliminate the stop at the meeting, asking Speight and Skerritt to consider other plans to combat misbehavior, in addition to removing the stop.

“I think we need to be very careful about what we’re heading into doing right now because I’m hearing this is children,” said ANC commissioner Denise Krepp, whose district includes Center City. “Then maybe there is another situation we should be solving.”

Capitol Hill-area residents and visitors could have fewer places to board D.C. Circulator buses if a District Department of Transportation plan to improve service on the line comes to fruition, a DDOT official said today.

The agency is in the process of deciding whether it should eliminate eight stops along the D.C. Circulator bus route between Union Station and Navy Yard, said Circe Torruellas, DDOT’s citywide planner for the bus service.

“Bus stop consolidation improves on-time performance and reliability by combining bus stops that are very close together,” she said. “It also reduces the average travel time for passengers because buses are able to travel faster.”

The stops that DDOT is considering closing include:

Northbound (toward Union Station)

• M and 4th streets SE. (The closest stop is less than two blocks away at 600 M St. SE.)
• 8th and E streets SE. (The closest stop is two short blocks away at 8th St SE and Pennsylvania Avenue SE.)
• Pennsylvania Avenue SE and 5th Street SE (Seward Square). (The closest stop is two blocks away at Pennsylvania Avenue SE and 3rd Street SE.)
• 8th and G streets SE. (The closest stop is three blocks away at 8th and L streets SE.)

Southbound (toward Navy Yard)

• Pennsylvania Avenue SE and 5th Street SE (Seward Square). (The closest stop is three blocks away  at Pennsylvania Avenue SE and 8th Street SE or three blocks in the other direction at Independence Avenue and 2nd Street SE.)
• 8th and D streets SE. (The closest stop stop is one block away at Pennsylvania Avenue SE and 8th Street SE.)
• M and 4th streets SE. (The closest stop is less than two blocks away at 600 M St. SE.)
• 8th and G streets. (The closest stop is three blocks away at 8th and L streets SE.)

Before any stops are eliminated, residents will have a chance to weigh in on the proposed changes at an open house later this month. The event will be at the Southeast Neighborhood Library (403 7th St. SE) on Sept. 30 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Councilman Charles Allen of Ward 6 is calling on Mayor Muriel Bowser to reconsider her decision to allow commercial buses serving Union Station to park on Buzzard Point in Southwest.

In an open letter to the mayor published on The Southwester’s website today, Allen said allowing the buses to park on Buzzard Point will place too much of a burden on Southwest residents. The councilman said Bowser should find a different location for the vehicles.

“Adding commercial bus parking to Buzzard Point will undoubtedly create additional pressures within these vibrant residential neighborhoods and negatively impact the community,” Allen said in his letter.

Bowser already has changed the location of the overflow bus parking before.

The group responsible for the restoration and construction at Union Station initially had sought to park the buses at the long-closed Alexander Crummell School in Ivy City, a move that was unpopular with residents of the Northeast community. At the beginning of August, Bowser assured Ivy City residents that their neighborhood would not house the buses, opting instead to park them on Buzzard Point and at other locations around D.C., The Washington Post reported.

But Allen said that moving the buses to Buzzard Point will “overburden” an area that is already home to several large-scale construction projects, including The Wharf.

“Neighborhood streets are already at capacity with construction traffic for the many projects underway,” Allen said, adding that “the combination of heavy commercial traffic seriously impacts pedestrian safety and the quality of life in Southwest.”

Photo via Google Maps

Riders of Metro’s X2 bus line soon will have the opportunity to see themselves and their fellow passengers on surveillance video monitors as they travel through the H Street corridor.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority next month will place the screens in 22 buses on the X2 line, which runs on H Street and Benning Road NE, the agency announced today. The monitors are part of an $81,000 pilot program that is set to run for several months in an effort to improve security along the line.

Each of the buses will receive two monitors. One of the screens will go above the bus driver and show real-time footage of passengers entering and exiting the bus. The other monitor, which will go behind the driver, will show live feeds from four cameras that film the interior of the bus.

WMATA’s announcement came after a shooting, knife attacks and, according to the agency, assaults on four bus drivers on the X2 line this year.

“Every Metrobus is equipped with multiple cameras, and those cameras are capturing activity on the bus — inside and out,” Metro Transit Police Chief Ronald Pavlik said in a statement. “Our hope is that showing riders what our cameras see will serve as a deterrent against crime, including assaults and fare evasion.”

Capitol Hill residents and visitors will have a new way to travel from Union Station to the National Mall starting this weekend.

D.C. Circulator buses will run a 15-stop loop from Columbus Circle and E Street NE to the Lincoln Memorial beginning Sunday. The buses also will stop near the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and each of the Smithsonian museums on the Mall, among other places.

A bus will arrive at the stops every 10 minutes. The buses will operate from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays from April 1 to Sept. 30. From Oct. 1 to March 31, the buses stop running one hour earlier on weekdays and weekends.

The fare is $1.

“The DC Circulator’s expansion is a win for the District, its residents and visitors as a sustainable solution for moving people around the National Mall and into our unique and diverse neighborhoods,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement. “This route will provide people with greater access to the nation’s most iconic monuments, memorials and museums while boosting economic activity in the District.”

Photo via Twitter/D.C. Circulator

WMATA is changing the route of the 96 bus line to provide new service along Massachusetts Avenue NE near Stanton Park.

The new route — which is scheduled to begin June 21 — departs from the current route by connecting Lincoln Park directly to Union Station.

This change will make it easier for Near Northeast residents to reach the bus line, which helps Capitol Hill-area locals access U Street NW, Adams Morgan and Woodley Park.

The 97 bus line — which shares much of its route with the 96 bus line — will to continue to service all of East Capitol Street, Constitution Avenue and Louisiana Avenue.

A man with a knife assaulted a passenger on board the X2 bus yesterday afternoon near the H Street corridor.

The assailant struck about noon on the 1600 block of Benning Road NE, according to authorities. The man and the victim struggled over the knife, then police responded and ordered the attacker to drop the weapon.

J.C. Rivers, 57, was arrested in connection with the incident, which police called an assault. The victim received minor injuries and was treated at the scene, and Rivers was hospitalized, police said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the passengers knew each other.

Information on Rivers’ lawyer wasn’t immediately available.

The attack is the latest in a series of reported crimes and other incidents involving the X2 line.

Last month, a man flashed a knife at a woman on the bus. In April, a juvenile hurled a rock at an X2 bus’s back door, shattering one of its glass panels. And in March, someone reportedly threw a brick through the windshield of an X2 bus, injuring two people. In January, a man shot two X2 riders.

A man flashed a knife at a woman on a bus traveling the X2 line last night, only hours after a juvenile hurled a rock through a window of another bus on the line.

Devon Jefferson, 40, threatened a woman and pointed a small knife at her during an argument as the bus drove along the H Street corridor, police said. Metro Transit police arrested Jefferson on the 1000 block of H Street NE at 7:30 p.m. It wasn’t immediately clear if the pair knew each other.

Information on Jefferson’s lawyer wasn’t immediately available.

The incident occurred the same day a bus on the X2 line was damaged on the 1900 block of Benning Road NE. Three juveniles exited the bus and then one member of the group threw a rock at the bus’s back door, shattering one of the glass panels just before 9 a.m., Metro spokesman Mike Tolbert said. No one was injured.

Police quickly spotted and stopped the juveniles, the spokesman said. They may be charged after authorities review surveillance video footage.

Last month, someone reportedly threw a brick through the windshield of a bus on the X2 line at the same location, injuring two people. There’s no indication the two instances of property damage are related, Tolbert said.

X2 riders have expressed frustration with the line, telling WMATA officials about delayed service, disruptive passengers and impolite drivers at at a community meeting in March.

A bus on the much-discussed X2 line was damaged this morning when a juvenile hurled a rock through one of its windows, just one month after a similar incident in the same location.

A westbound bus on the X2 line, which runs along H Street NE, was damaged just before 9 a.m. on the 1900 block of Benning Road NE, Metro spokesman Mike Tolbert said.

Three juveniles exited the bus and then one member of the group threw a rock at the bus’s back door, shattering one of the glass panels, Tolbert said. No one was injured.

D.C. police quickly spotted and stopped the juveniles, Tolbert said. They may be charged after the Metropolitan Police Department and Metropolitan Transit Police review surveillance video footage.

Twitter user @JadeMStone told the blog Frozen Tropics she spoke with people onboard the affected bus:

@FrozenTropics Didn’t see it happen, but saw #X2 at 19th & Benning offload b/c someone ran down alley & threw a brick into the #X2Bus window

— Jade (@JadeMStone) April 29, 2015

@FrozenTropics No one was hurt. Only about 7 people were on the bus & they got on next one w/me. They said there was glass everywhere.

— Jade (@JadeMStone) April 29, 2015

Two people were injured on a westbound X2 bus the morning of March 30 when someone reportedly threw a brick through the windshield, at 19th Street and Benning Road NE. There’s no indication the two instances of property damage are related, Tolbert said.

X2 riders told officials at a community meeting in mid-March that they’re frustrated with delayed service, disruptive passengers and impolite drivers.

“Any time you get on the X2, you get a show,” a WMATA street operations supervisor admitted.

Frozen Tropics and The Washington Post assembled dozens of tweets last month about life aboard the often-raucous X2, covering everything from a passenger going into labor to a homeless woman “putting a curse” on the bus driver.

Ridership on the line recently climbed an estimated 14 percent.

More and more people are riding the X2 bus.

Ridership on the X2 Metrobus line, which travels the Benning Road/H Street NE corridor, jumped an estimated 14 percent between October and February, according to data released this week by Metro.

An average of 13,800 people rode the bus every weekday in February, up from 12,700 people in October, the data shows. Metro attributed the spike in ridership to improvements they made in December, including increasing the frequency of buses to every 8 minutes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and keeping buses evenly spaced.

“Overcrowding (particularly during the midday) has been virtually eliminated, and on-time performance has grown to 83% — a remarkable achievement for a heavily congested urban corridor,” a post to the PlanItMetro blog says.

X2 riders told officials last week that they’re frustrated with delayed service, disruptive passengers and impolite drivers, as Hill Now reported.

“Any time you get on the X2, you get a show,” a WMATA street operations supervisor admitted.

Hat tip to @WCPSarah. Image via PlanItMetro

Frustrated Metrobus riders who travel through Near Northeast and the H Street corridor called on WMATA officials last night to improve service, but received few new commitments from the agency.

Riding the X2 and X8 buses often means having to cope with delayed service, disruptive passengers and impolite drivers, about two dozen locals told transit officials at a community meeting last night.

Pat Allen, who lives on Maryland Avenue NE, said she was frustrated with the bus operators.

“The kids get on the bus and they’re a little rowdy, but I can overlook that,” she said. “But when you got nasty bus drivers, I got a problem with that.”

Norman Williams, WMATA assistant supervisor of street operations, defended drivers and said they need to avoid becoming targets for violence. He admitted the buses often get unruly.

“Any time you get on the X2, you get a show,” he said. “At night, you’re going to get a real show. If you want some action, you ride the X2 at night.”

Kathy Henderson, the chairwoman of ANC 5D, described trouble with passengers.

“They curse the bus driver out. Sometimes it can be a wild card, an experience that really is stressful for everyone,” she said.

A man shot two passengers on the X2 bus in January, and a female passenger was charged in June 2013 with assaulting a driver.

As plans falter for the H Street/Benning Road streetcar, the thoroughfare’s main mode of transportation has been in the spotlight. Frozen Tropics and The Washington Post recently gathered 24 tweets about life aboard the bus, describing everything from a woman going into labor to a rider trying to pay his fare in sunflower seeds.

Henderson described the meeting as a “good first step” in working with WMATA to improve service on the X2 and X8 lines. WMATA officials agreed to another community meeting, a commitment Henderson said she appreciated.

“We want to have a dialogue that results in an effective empowerment of this community and long-term improvement,” she said.

(Updated at 12:10 p.m.) A gunman opened fire last night on a crowded Metrobus near Union Station.

A man shot into an eastbound X2 bus with about 40 passengers near 1st and H streets NW about 10:20 p.m. Monday, Metro Transit Police said. Two men, 21 and 47, were hit and received non-life-threatening injuries.

The shooting suspect and victims are believed to have boarded the bus at 7th and H streets NW, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel told The Washington Post. Surrounded by dozens of passengers, the three men argued, and the suspect and a woman exited the bus through the rear door. With the doors still open, he shot inside, hitting one man in the hand and the other in the thigh, Metro said.

A suspect about 5-foot-10, with a slim build was caught on bus surveillance cameras. A woman who walked off the scene of the crime with the suspected shooter is being sought too, police said in an update Tuesday morning.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts or identities of the persons of interest is asked to call 202-962-2121 or text MyMTPD. Case # 2015-03079

Photo via Metro Transit Police