Rapid Transit Bus for Southern Maryland

Posted by chris on February 15, 2009

Story submitted by Frank Allen

For several years there has been discussion about the possibility of establishing light rail or commuter rail service to St Mary’s County. Population and traffic growth here and the demonstrated growth in ridership on the Keller bus service do indicate need for improved public transit between here and Washington. However establishing either light rail or commuter rail service would be very expensive and could take a decade or more to develop. I am proposing a different transit option that can be established quickly and incrementally upgraded: a bus service running on a combination of public highways and dedicated busways. This type of transit is called Rapid Transit Bus (RTB).

I have seen a few examples of this type of service. The first is the Gray line on the Boston MBTA. I boarded an ordinary bus at Logan Airport which looped around the airport, entered the new Ted Williams Tunnel (Interstate 90 extension) under Boston Harbor, traveled a few blocks through South Boston, then entered a bus tunnel under the downtown area. I go off at the South Station stop. I took the bus back at the end of my meetings a few days later. Even though my rides were close to the peak of rush hour (trust me, Boston traffic moves at a crawl), the trips were pretty quick because the buses traveled along dedicated routes in the congested areas. The MBTA was able to establish this route at reduced costs because they decided to share the tunnel under the harbor rather than dig a separate and very expensive tunnel just for the line.

Another example is the new Metro Orange Line in Los Angeles. This line runs between Warner Center in Woodland Hills and North Hollywood, where riders can connect to the Red Line to downtown. Trips take 42 minutes regardless of time of day because the buses on this line leave the surface road to travel on a former rail line.

I propose development of a similar system here in Southern Maryland for travel between the Branch Avenue Metro station and Tulagi Place in Lexington Park (possibly with a few bus trips a day to St Mary’s College). It would be possible to establish service immediately – just have the bus travel along Route 235/5. Meanwhile, dedicated busways can be established along congested portions of the route. For instance, the rail bed in Waldorf can be used. The center strip on Route 5 between Brandywine and Clinton is also wide enough for two bus lanes – here each bus would have to stop at traffic lights, but would not be delayed by long traffic queues. There will still be delays between the station and Route 5 due to traffic delays at lights, unless upgrades are made in that area.

The existing Keller service is a pure rush hour service to and from Washington. The first several stops are along the Metro Green line but the train can travel that distance much faster during rush hour than a bus can. The service I propose will not be subject to traffic delays within the beltway, so bus turn around can be faster and bus service can serve to feed commuters in both directions, to Washington and to the Pax River/Lexington Park area. It will have greater ridership if there is some service between rush periods and into the evening. Limited weekend service should also be considered. This expanded service will make it so that commuters can stay late, or come in late and not worry about parking; so people going to Reagan Airport can leave their cars home; so people can get around with fewer cars.

There might be some issues to address in getting approval for this service. For example, Metro officials might be reluctant to support a new feeder bus service to the Metro Green line because the trains are near capacity. However, off peak buses would make it so riders are willing to travel off peak and could actually increase total Metro capacity.