Wednesday, February 25, 2009

"Restructuring" the 37

If you are looking here, you've probably seen the notice that mentions that RideOn plans on "restructuring routes 37 and 6" for FY2010. There is a lot of confusion as to what this really means, so I called RideOn this morning to ask some questions. Here's what I found out:

  • Under the proposed restructuring, the 37 as we currently know it will NOT change. The route will stay the same, as will the frequency.

  • There could be some slight schedule changes (e.g. bus will leave at 5:57 instead of 5:59 pm or the like), but that level of detail isn't yet known.

  • What is changing is what our bus will do AFTER we've all reached Grosvenor. The bus itself will continue on to Wheaton. Currently it's the 6 that runs from Grosvenor to Wheaton. It will be the 37 once the restructuring happens. The section between Potomac Community Center and Grosvenor will be unchanged.
In the course of my discussion with the RideOn official in charge of this part of the proposal, I told him that the word "restructuring" was ambiguous and that the riders on the 37 were unclear on what it means and given our experiences last year, a bit suspicious of what it means. To try to allay our fears, he is going to try to get some of his staff out to Grosvenor next week to hand out more concrete info as we get off the bus and/or to be available to answer any questions we may want to ask.