Metro News Release

For immediate release: March 27, 2008

Metro adds off-peak, weekday bus service on MetroExtra Route 79

Beginning Monday, March 31, Metro will expand service on its popular Metrobus Route 79, Georgia Avenue MetroExtra Line, to include off-peak service on weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6:30 to 7 p.m. Buses will operate every 12 minutes during off-peak hours.

MetroExtra Route 79 currently provides morning and afternoon peak period, limited-stop service between Silver Spring Metrorail station and Archives via Georgia Avenue and 7th/9th streets. Buses operate every 10 minutes weekdays from 6 to 9:30 a.m. and 3 to 6:30 p.m.

Expanded off-peak service on MetroExtra Route 79 will speed travel time and increase capacity along the busy Georgia Avenue corridor by more than 35 percent. Route 79 averages 3,500 passengers each weekday, or 42 passengers per trip. Daily ridership along Georgia Avenue has increased 9 percent since limited-stop service began in March 2007.

“Customers along the Georgia Avenue corridor will now have the option of taking the faster, limited-stop MetroExtra Route 79 throughout the entire day between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.,” said Milo Victoria, Metro’s Assistant General Manager of Bus Operations. “MetroExtra service has been a tremendous success, and we look forward to enhancing service on other bus lines to keep up with growing Metrobus ridership.”

MetroExtra Route 79 service saves approximately 20 percent in travel time compared with the local Route 70 service because stops are spaced ½ mile apart, allowing buses to travel with the flow of traffic much of the time. Route 70 local service along Georgia Avenue typically carries more than 7,000 off-peak passengers, an average of 108 passengers per trip, which is the highest of any Metrobus line.

For more information on Metrobus, please visit www.metroopensdoors.com or call 202-637-7000.

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News release issued at 9:39 am, March 27, 2008.