The Wisconsin Avenue Limited Line, designated Route 37, is a weekday peak-hour bus route operated by the

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional government agency that operates transit service in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA was created by the United States Con ...

between

Friendship Heights station Friendship Heights is a Washington Metro station straddling the border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The station was opened on August 25, 1984, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Au ...

of the Red Line of the

Washington Metro The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,Google Books search/preview

and

Archives station Archives is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C. on the Green and Yellow Lines. The station is located in Northwest Washington at 7th Street between Pennsylvania and Indiana Avenues, and it is very close to Gallery Place station, so ...

of the

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

and Yellow Lines of the Washington Metro. The line operates every 15–22 minutes during the weekday peak hours only in the peak direction only. Route 37 trips are roughly 45 minutes long. This route provides limited stop service along

Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a diagonal street in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, that connects the White House and the United States Capitol and then crosses the city to Maryland. In Maryland it is also Maryland Route 4 (MD 4) ...

and

Wisconsin Avenue Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. The southern terminus begins in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. The se ...

supplementing routes 31, and 33.

Background

Route 37 operates during weekday rush hours only in the peak direction between

and

mostly along

and

Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue may refer to: * Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston), Massachusetts ** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Orange Line station), a subway station on the MBTA Orange Line ** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Silver Line station), a stati ...

. The line provides limited stop service to supplement routes 30N, 30S, 31, and 33 during the weekday peak-hours along the busy Wisconsin Avenue corridor. Route 37 currently operates out of Montgomery division. It did, however, operate out of Western division until 2017.

History

Route 37 originally operated as the Wisconsin Avenue Express Line which ran under a similar routing to route 37. The line originally operated between

Washington Union Station Washington Union Station is a major train station, transportation hub, and leisure destination in Washington, D.C. Designed by Daniel Burnham and opened in 1907, it is Amtrak's headquarters, the railroad's second-busiest station, and North Ameri ...

and

, then later between Friendship Heights and

. Around the 1990s the line was shortened from Friendship Heights to Tenleytown–AU station. The line was later discontinued in 1996 and replaced by routes 30, 32, 34, 35, and 36. In 2008, WMATA announced a study on the current 30s lines in order to simplify the line, improve services, reduce delays and bus bunchings. As of 2008, the 30s line has more than 20,000 passengers a day.

Reincarnation

On June 29, 2008, route 37 was reincarnated into service to operate as the Wisconsin Avenue Limited Line in order to provide limited-stop service between

and

primarily along the

and

corridors. The new route 37 replaced route 30 which operated between Friendship Heights and

Potomac Avenue station Potomac Avenue is an island-platformed Washington Metro station bordering the Barney Circle, Capitol Hill and Hill East neighborhoods of Southeast Washington, D.C., United States. The station was opened on July 1, 1977, and is operated by the W ...

, a new route 39 provided limited stop service along the

corridor, and routes 31, 32, 36, and M5 replaced the 30, 34, and 35.

2010s

During the 2010s, route 37 was slightly rerouted to instead turn onto Jennifer street and instead terminate at the intersection of Western Avenue and

instead of terminating along Jennifer street to let passengers board/alight closer to the

entrance along Western Avenue.

Proposed elimination

In 2019 during WMATA's FY2021 budget proposal, WMATA proposed to eliminate the 37 in order to reduce costs and alternative service at most stops. According to performance measures, the 37 averages 450 riders per weekday, 48% of riders can make exact same trip on other routes, and the farebox recovery is 14.6% (the system average is 34.3%). One of the reasons the 37 declines in ridership is due to it skipping Georgetown where ridership is high in the areas for the 30s line. WMATA later backed out the proposals due to customer pushback on April 2, 2020. The proposed elimination was brought back up on September 26, 2020 due to low federal funding. Route 37 has not operated since March 13, 2020 due to Metro's response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

References

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