The D.C. Circulator route that ferries riders around the National Mall has been suspended, just as the region is being flooded with visitors for the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. The route was supposed to resume this weekend – nearly in time for the expected peak bloom of the Tidal Basin’s cherry trees — after being suspended over the winter months.
But the District Department of Transportation pulled the plug on the line, one of the only public transit options for tourists trying to get to the blossoms.
“It’s not a matter of it coinciding with the Cherry Blossom Festival,” said DDOT spokesman John Lisle. “We decided not to start it up due to the low ridership.”
The Smithsonian-National Mall route, which had operated only on Saturdays and Sundays, had just 15,113 riders during its truncated seasonal schedule last year. That meant an average of just 10 riders per hour compared with the overall system average of 29 riders per hour, according a DDOT study. It was also the least cost-efficient, needing a subsidy of $12.03 per ride on top of the $1 fare compared with the systemwide subsidy of $2.31 per trip.
But the Circulator is the one of the only — and certainly the cheapest — modes of public transportation to get directly to the Tidal Basin and around the Mall. Tickets on the Tourmobile, a private tour group which has an exclusive contract with the National Park Service, cost $32 for an adult, compared with $1 for the Circulator.
Because of the exclusive National Park Service contract with Tourmobile, the Circulator isn’t allowed to operate on Madison or Jefferson avenues, so the public bus travels on Constitution and Independence avenues one block from the National Mall instead.
“There’s certainly a market for transit on the Mall,” Lisle said. “I’m not sure the current route serves that purpose.”
The line has been on the chopping block before. In 2009, the agency suspended it for winter and initially planned to resume it several days after the annual festival began. But it pushed the start date forward to coincide with the first day of the festival last year.
Then a draft report on the Circulator system issued this month called for the route to be closed down altogether, saving an estimated $170,000. The city is hosting a meeting on Thursday about the report’s findings but went ahead with the cut after an initial community meeting two weeks ago. “No strong objections were voiced,” Lisle said.
The resources saved on that route are slated to be redirected to the Union Station/Navy Yard line, providing weekend service and longer hours until at least 9 p.m., Lisle said.
