Nothing makes my head hurt more than when a bus tries to do the job of a train. This is where people who complain about cheap access to transit usually start calling me names, but sadly it is not good transit planning to provide a parallel system just for the sake of it costing less to ride. This is especially true when that same system actually costs more to operate for the transit operation than the available rail system. At a time when gas is expensive and congestion causes buses run at half speed which should be reviewing our routes to see the SHORTEST and QUICKEST ways to get access to far cheaper to run metro rail lines.
The 24T is an example of bad planning and a squeaky wheel. This route may serve a few people, but rearranging it could still serve those same residents while also running twice as efficiently. That savings doesn’t have to mean a cut in services, it could mean longer operation hours or shorter head ways. Here we have a bus that runs from the Tysons Westpark Transit Center through some of the lowest density regions of Fairfax County, McLean Hamlet, Great Falls, and North McLean. Typical lots through this regions are between 1 and 5 acres per house. To add insult to injury the planners decided to not route this bus to West Falls Church (about a 30 minute round trip) but instead to East Falls Church, a 1 hour round trip route that often experiences delays.
Of course the route takes the bus through portions of Arlington County which have more dense single family housing on its way to East Falls Church, but then again why should Fairfax pick up a significant portion of the bill for a system that could be run much more efficiently. If Arlington would like to still serve this portion of Arlington via bus, then have a much cheaper and quicker bus run between Westmoreland and East Falls Church separate from the 24T.
There are only a half dozen businesses along this current route, so the excuse for this elongated system can’t be that residents are trying to reach work. It is simply a dinosaur of a route which wastes limited funds.
Again, I am not saying to cut the 24T, just route it to West Falls Church. Any one trying to get on the Orange Line still can. Any one trying to get to East Falls Church still can. On top of that, why is this bus a full sized Cummins C40? For this dense of a neighborhood the bus could easily be run as a shuttle for 1/3rd of the operation cost. Perhaps then a bus route could be created that connects North McLean via Lewinsville to central Tysons’ office corridor, a far larger magnet destination for many of these residents.
The problem is that WMATA is simply trying to meet a quota or total mile goal when it deals with Fairfax. On one hand they tell us that there is no ability to reduce waste because Fairfax operation costs are exceeding ridership, but on the other hand they don’t even try to figure out what parts of their system could be improved… atleast not in Fairfax.
So WMATA, we think you should atleast look at this corridor and see if something less cookie cutter and wasteful could work. Take the two C40s that you currently run Intercounty, split it into six plug-in electric buses capable of the running the 4 hour rush service currently needed for the the 24T. Send three of these new buses, with their unique A-Team vibe, for the split point of Arlington–>East Falls Church, and then have the other three run West Falls Church–>North McLean–>Tysons Office Corridor. The additional capital cost of a new stock returns money from that investment after 5 years of operation with the current 15c/kwh rate and best of all it fits the market it is meant to address.
I know it is hard to actually think about how best to serve residents and customers, but we assure you providing solutions will start turning the tide of skepticism in this region. Even if electric is not an option, just downsizing to an appropriate size will reduce operation costs significantly. Or… you can continue to rest on your laurels and one day Fairfax will just cut off your bus subsidies because we know how to run things more efficiently. The 24T is a complete waste WMATA, and I would like you to fix it.