DC Circulator bus service to close its doors by the end of the year

The DC Circulator bus service will end on Dec. 31 after a phased-in elimination beginning Oct. 1, the District Department of Transportation announced Monday.

The decision was made as part of the district’s fiscal 2025 budget.

“We greatly appreciate the valuable service DC Circulator provided to the District over the past 18 years,” acting DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum said in a statement. “We are grateful for the employees who supported the program and the riders who chose Circulator as part of their commute.”

Beginning Oct. 1, the following route adjustments will be implemented:

• Termination of the Rosslyn-Dupont Circle route
• Elimination of late-night service on the Woodley Park-Adams Morgan and Georgetown-Union Station routes
• Remaining routes will operate on 20-minute headways, a 10-minute increase from current arrival times.
• The Woodley Park-Adams Morgan, Georgetown-Union Station, Congress Heights-Union Station, and Eastern Market-L’Enfant Plaza routes will end service at 9 p.m. daily instead of midnight.
• The National Mall route will continue to operate until 7 p.m. daily.

Established in 2005, the DC Circulator provides transportation to Washington’s main attractions and neighborhoods for $1.

It consists of six routes across the district and into Rosslyn, Virginia.

Although there were more than 5 million riders in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, ridership dropped to about 2 million in 2020 and never recovered, according to DDOT data.

Meanwhile, operating costs skyrocketed to more than $30 million annually.

DDOT is working with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to help reduce the impact of the shutdown on the public.