The D.C. Circulator on Tuesday will lay off more than half its bus operators and scale back operations, initiating the service’s three-month phaseout amid calls from its union, drivers and local governing bodies for District officials to redeploy drivers and salvage routes.
A year after the Circulator’s employer, RATP Dev USA, reportedly told drivers that the District Department of Transportation extended the service’s contract until 2028, bus operators are waiting to find out if they’ll lose their job this week or at the end of the year after officials in July announced plans to terminate routes by Dec. 31. The Circulator’s union and local leaders are pressing District officials to transfer the service’s operations and workers to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, while drivers brace for pay cuts and low severance packages.
The Circulator on Tuesday will end its Rosslyn-Dupont Circle route and late night service for Georgetown-Union Station — two of the three routes that pass through Foggy Bottom. Circulator employees said RATP Dev will notify 93 of the 178 bus operators of their immediate termination Monday.
In April, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released her proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which would terminate the Circulator in spring 2025 and temporarily adjust some Metro services until officials unveil a plan next summer to expand routes. Ben Lynn, the press and communications associate for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, said the union initially agreed to support the termination on the condition that the mayor’s office would help WMATA absorb all employees and routes.
“The union had contingently offered to support phasing out Circulator but on the contingent basis that there would be a transition plan in place to transfer this service,” Lynn said.
He said Bowser ceased communication with Local 689 in late April after her office requested earlier that month that union leaders support the budget cut and help Circulator workers transition to other jobs during the phase out. DDOT on July 29 announced it would terminate the service by the end of the year, which Lynn said has forced the union to quickly develop service transfer proposals.
“It does not appear that a transition plan is a priority for the mayor and DDOT,” Lynn said.
Lynn said a negotiated transfer would allow WMATA to absorb all Circulator routes and employees, who would receive an hourly wage relative to their years of service. He said currently Circulator employees must apply to Metro and if hired “start over from scratch” without seniority, which will result in an average hourly pay cut between $9 and $11 — an estimated $70,000 drop over each employee’s lifetime.
Last week, the union held a rally outside of the John A. Wilson Building calling on the mayor to demand a negotiated transfer, but Lynn said they received no response from the mayor’s office or DDOT following the rally. The mayor’s office and DDOT did not return a request for comment.
Circulator employees who are set to receive a potential one-day notice of their termination said they feel they’ve been discarded by District officials who didn’t listen to their reports of faulty bus equipment.
Glynda Dansby, who has worked as a Circulator operator and supervisor for seven years, said people who have worked for the service for fewer than two years will receive one week of severance pay, those who have worked at least five years will receive two weeks and those with 10 or more years will receive three weeks.
“We’re going to fight because we need answers, and we need to know why we’re being thrown out like this and at least not given a decent severance pay,” Dansby said.
Lynn said Circulator workers have raised concerns to the union about low severance payment packages, which the union negotiated with DDOT but noted there was a “limited amount” the District was willing to allocate.
Dansby said last Monday RATP Dev held a bid day and gave everyone a number based on their seniority. She said she still won’t know officially when she’ll be terminated until RATP Dev issues letters to employees on Monday.
Natasha Guest, who has served as a bus operator for the last four years, said RATP Dev initiated a point system where if a driver receives two or more points for missing work between Aug. 14 and their date of termination, they don’t receive severance pay.
“How can you not call out if you have to go to a job interview, I’m trying to find a job by the end of month,” Guest said.
A bus operator who has worked for the Circulator since 2006 and requested anonymity for future employment reasons, said at least 75 drivers have worked at the Circulator for a “long time,” and their pay will be cut from $40 to $29 an hour if they apply to WMATA because their seniority won’t transfer over to their new job.
“It’s unfair to us, it’s unfair to the public, it’s unfair to our passengers because we have relationships with these people,” she said.
WMATA did not return a request for comment.
She said DDOT claims that “ridership is low” on the Circulator because the bus’ fare boxes and Clever Devices that track ridership don’t work. She said the radios and engine lights also don’t work in most buses, and the District has “sabotaged” the service by ignoring workers’ continued requests for repairs.
She said ridership also appears low because many citizens evade the fare given that the service used to be free. Bowser waived fares from early 2019 to October 2019 and again from March 2020 to September 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You promoted it as free, and once you put that in people’s head, they’re gonna stop paying,” she said.
Yannik Omictin, a member of the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission, proposed a resolution that the local governing body approved on Sept. 18, calling on Bowser to transfer Circulator employees, routes and fleets to WMATA. He said he is circulating a letter around to D.C. commissioners, which has garnered 48 signatures and will be “imminently” sent to the mayor’s office and D.C. Council.
He said terminating the Circulator is a “massive risk” for his ANC — which he said three of the six circulator routes run through — because the bus reduces traffic, helps people get to work and supports tourism.
“The cost to the city is going to be massive in lives, it’s going to be massive to the social safety net, it’s going to be massive to tourism, and it’s going to be devastating to small businesses,” Omictin said.
