Montgomery Co. announces $40 million rapid transit bus service set to launch Oct. 14

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (ABC7) — On Thursday, Montgomery County announced its first-ever bus rapid transit service will launch on October 14.

62-foot-long double buses will run from early in the morning until late at night between downtown Silver Spring and the Burtonsville area, and MCDOT says waits should never be longer than 15 minutes.

“We’re expecting that it’s going to save you 20 to 30 percent of the travel time that you’d experience on our normal buses,” MCDOT Director Chris Conklin told ABC7.

The nearly $40 million bus rapid transit service will be called “Flash,” and the extra-long buses will run on two different routes.

Buses will run one of the routes starting at 5:15 a.m. and ending nearly at midnight between a Briggs Chaney stop and the Silver Spring Transit Center.

The other route will be run during peak hours only – 5:30–8:30 a.m. and 3:30–7:30 p.m. – between the transit center and Burtonsville. Buses on that route will only travel on Rt. 29 and will have very limited stops.

Although the county says waits should never be longer than 15 minutes, at some stops during peak hours buses will arrive every seven and a half minutes. Those stops are the transit center, Four Corners, and Burnt Mills.

Buses will be allowed to use the shoulder of the road to get around traffic on Rt. 29 north of Tech Road. South of Tech Road, and buses will have to share the road with other traffic without being able to use the shoulder.

MCDOT says both newly constructed bus stops and the buses themselves will have free wi-fi and USB ports.

On the buses, new technology is aimed at allowing riders who use wheelchairs to lock in place without needing the driver’s help. There will also be places to hang bikes inside the buses instead of making cyclists use a rack on the outside.

MCDOT says the cost to ride will be $2, the same as taking a trip on a Metrobus, and the same discounts for some riders will be available.

Riders will pay not on the buses but at the stops, either using cash or their SmarTrip card.

The Flash service on and near Rt. 29 will be only the second bus rapid transit service in the D.C. area. The other runs between Alexandria and Crystal City and Pentagon City.

Covering a total of 14 miles, Montgomery County’s bus rapid transit will serve more territory than the one in Virginia.

MCDOT director Conklin says the county is already designing a future bus rapid transit route along Veirs Mill Road further west, and in addition plans to eventually have bus rapid transit along Rt. 355 between Bethesda and Clarksburg.