Construction on Silver Spring’s long-awaited transit center drops Monday, but commuters can get their first taste of change on Sunday. That’s when Metro, Ride-On, VanGo and collegiate shuttle buses take off from new bus stops dotting Wayne and Dixon Avenues and Bonifant Street.
Here’s how it all goes down, according to the transportation department:
If you roll on Metro’s F4 or F6 to PG County, hit your ride at bus stop A, along the “jug handle” near Discovery Communications. You can catch the free VanGo shuttle around downtown Silver Spring on the jug handle, too.
Strangely, there’s no bus stop B. (Insert conspiracy theory here.) But at bus stop C, you can hit Metro’s Z2, Z6 and Z8 buses up route 29 (Colesville Road and Columbia Pike). That stop sits on the north side of Wayne Avenue, closest to the entrance to Discovery Communications’ underground garage.
Just east of that is bus stop D, where Metro’s Z11 and Z13 buses can drag your ass express-style to the Greencastle and Briggs-Chaney areas. And next to that, at bus stop E, Metro’s Z9 and Z29 will take you to the outer reaches of civilization: Burtonsville and Laurel.
On the north side of Wayne, just east of Discovery’s circular driveway, Metro’s J1, J2 and J3 lines to Bethesda kick it at bus stop F. And next to that, closest to the northwest corner of Wayne and Georgia Avenues, the Bethesda-bound J4, Ride-On’s route 2 to Lyttonsville and its route 9 to Wheaton take off from bus stop G. (Buses returning to Silver Spring on those routes unload directly across the street, on the south side of Wayne.)
Head downhill again on Wayne and arrive at bus stop H, on the street’s south side and just outside the red-brick Trips commuter store. There, you can hitch a ride down Georgia Avenue on Metro’s 70 or 71 bus line. Take two steps east to catch Metro’s 79 express down Georgia at bus stop I (”eye”).
At bus stop J, near the southwest corner of Wayne and Dixon, Metro’s S2 and S4 lines will take you down 16th Street. And near the southeast corner, at bus stop K, eastbound J4, route 2 and route 9 buses dump their passengers.
According to the county’s map of this mess, there is a bus stop L on the south side of Wayne, directly across the street from bus stop G. But so far, no bus actually stops there. There’s also a bus stop M on the west side of Dixon, near its intersection with Wayne. But again, no bus. (Keep those conspiracy theories coming, people.)
At bus stop N, commuters can catch Ride-On’s route 8 up Georgia Avenue to Wheaton, the route 18 past Montgomery College’s Silver Spring/Takoma Park campus to Langley Park, the route 21 to the Briggs-Chaney Park and Ride, and the route 22 past the Food and Drug Administration’s White Oak campus to Hillandale. Hit that stop near the northwest corner of Dixon and Bonifant Street.
Bus stop O sits on the low end of the hill along Dixon’s east side. That’s where you can catch Metro’s Y5, Y7, Y8 and Y9 to Olney via Georgia Avenue. A few steps uphill, catch the Q2 to Montgomery College’s Rockville campus via Veirs Mill Road at bus stop P. Take another couple steps uphill to bus stop Q for the J5 bus to the White Flint Mall and the Food and Drug Administration’s Parklawn building.
On Bonifant Street, towards its northeast corner with Ramsey Avenue, bus stop R will hook you up with Ride-On’s routes 1 and 11 to Friendship Heights, route 3 to Takoma, DC, route 4 to Kensington, and route 5 to Twinbrook.
Bus stops S and U exist on the north side of Bonifant between Dixon and Ramsey, but nothing stops there. Bus stop T, sandwiched between S and U (duh), is where you can catch Ride-On’s routes 12 and 13 to Takoma, DC, and route 17 to Langley Park.
On the south side of Bonifant (closest to the former taxi pick-up), bus stop W is a vacant wasteland of concrete, where no bus driver dares to stop. Two steps uphill to the east, at bus stop X, hit Ride-On’s route 14 to Takoma, DC, route 15 to Langley Park, and route 19 to Northwood.
Two more steps uphill from bus stop X is bus stop Y, yet another black hole. And finally, just west of Dixon Avenue on Bonifant’s south side, is bus stop Z. It’s where Ride-On’s route 16 to Takoma, DC, and route 20 to Hillandale kick it.
Wait a minute — where’s bus stop V? That poor little bastard sits on Bonifant’s northeast corner with Dixon. Coeds looking for lifts to the University of Maryland or Montgomery College can hook up with shuttle buses there.
Metro and MARC rail service won’t be affected by construction.
For more information, visit the project’s website.
Map courtesy of Montgomery County’s department of transportation.
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Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
As inconvenient as this will be, I just love the signs they put up by the new bus stops with the penguins in their hard hats.
Just for informational purposes only, the Parklawn building houses many federal agencies not just FDA.
Thank you, Jennifer for this very useful story!! The separation of RideOn Routes #16 and #17 are a real hoot. And they are both far from where Metrobus F4/F6 stop. Wow! One could run around between all 3 and totally miss the chance to acutally board! The sad part is that NextBus would have really helped here. Too bad the WMATA & RideOn couldn’t make it work.
Bus bays with electronic signs that tell which bus is coming where are planned for the new transit center, at least that’s what the engineers said a meeting a few years ago. I hope they were right.
Okay, this is definitely off topic, but I passed the Bennington the other day and saw that they were doing construction work inside where a breakfast type place is supposed to go in. Does anyone know if this is actually happenning soon? I saw tables and chairs and counters being put in as well. Also, any update as to what is going in across from Discovery on Colseville road by Twin Towers, other than the MT or whatever bank? Is that Dunkin’ Donut rumor true?
At the bottom of the project’s Web site is a link called “Status”, which goes to a PDF of the most recent update (#14). Guess when it was last updated? April! I called the project manager on this a few months back and he said “Uh, oh, I guess I need to update that don’t I”. Still no update so I called the other project manager listed and left him a voice mail that the status page was woefully old.
I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease…the updated status page is now posted.
Oh man, if a Dunkin Donuts moves into DTSS, I am finished with Starbucks for good.
Mmmmmmmmm…raspberry filled jelly donuts by the dozen.
Re: Dunkin Donuts, I don’t have any solid info on whether they’ll make an appearance in DTSS. I hope so! I do know that Qdoba Mexican fast food will be moving in.
Re: Coffee shop at The Benningtons, it was supposed to open sooner, but a receptionist there said it could open this winter.
This morning was fairly hellish at the station. My bus (16) driver clearly had no idea where to drop us off, consulting a tiny cheat sheet at stoplights… and chose to go all the way to the 16 stop on Bonifant (Z). From there, we had to walk completely around the construction area, down the side of Wayne, just to get to the metro entrance. All told, it added a good 15 minutes to the commute this morning, first just trying to make the left onto Georgia and then dealing with turning right on Wayne and left on Ramsey. (Map of the silliness.)
I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with this every day, save for driving into work or walking when I can. It’s certainly bumped up my time line on moving…
The cafe in the first floor of the Bennington now has an awning and name: The Pomegrante Cafe.
I think for the time being I’ll just walk to Takoma for my commute instead of dealing with the SS construction. It is a longer walk, but perhaps with the detour not so much. Plus it is cheaper going downtown from the Takoma station than SS.
Hilary, you have my sympathy! So does the bus driver. The way I see it, allowing extra time for a couple of weeks is the only real coping stragegy for us bus babes & dudes.
However, inquiring minds want to know if the bus stops will keep moving, as they did at the Wheaton station. The Wheaton station area is still under construction, by the way. I have no idea where the Wheaton taxi stand went.
Hilary: I work in the area as well and take the 12 bus in (also drops off on Bonifant) and if you follow the signs to the MARC station and take the overpass over the tracks it’s fairly quick and easy. To get to the Metro from there you have to go down and out of the parking garage under 1315 E-W Hwy, but that’s close.
Sorry for the double post, but Google map link here. Also, no street crossing involved.
Hey thanks NoGnus! I’m a Bonifant walker and I had not considered your secret shortcut. I’ll it tomorrow!
Thanks, NoGnus! I’ll try it this morning. I’d been experimenting with just getting off on Colesville across from the AFI and walking down to the metro, but it’s about the same time…