ROCKVILLE, Md. — Montgomery County kicked off a new bus service designed to get commuters out of their cars and back and forth to work with less hassle.
The county’s Ride On Extra service started Monday morning. The buses will carry riders from the Lakeforest Transit Center in Gaithersburg to the Medical Center Metro station in Bethesda for free for the month of October before the $2 fare (per trip) kicks in.
The morning service will start at 5:30 a.m. and run until 9:30 a.m. Afternoon service will pick up at 3:30 p.m. and the last run will go at 7:30 p.m.
The buses will have a limited number of stops. Instead of the nearly 80 Ride On stops along Maryland Route 355, there will be just 12 stops.
Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner, a proponent of bus-rapid-transit, with its dedicated lanes, said the limited stop buses are a good start toward easing congestion. He touted some of the features of the new bus service; “It has Wi-Fi, it has USB ports!” and Berliner, a coffee-lover added, “The only thing it doesn’t have is Starbucks!”
