page_title: Anacostia station
section_title: Bus controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Anacostia station / History / Station opening / Controversy / Bus controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: Bus bays at the Anacostia Metro station on the Green Line in Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: Anacostia is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C. on the Green Line. The station is located in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington, with entrances at Shannon Place and Howard Road near Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE. The station serves as a hub for Metrobus routes in Southeast, Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland.
context_section_description: Like all Metro stations, the Anacostia station was intended to be a major hub for Metrobus service in its area. But with the Anacostia neighborhood being the poorest and most transit-dependent area in the District of Columbia, changes to bus routes in the area proved highly controversial.
  As the opening of the Green Line to Anacostia neared, Metro proposed halving the number of bus routes traveling between Anacostia and the National Archives Building downtown—forcing riders to take the more expensive Metrorail and requiring many riders to walk several blocks to their destination (rather than the "virtually door-to-door service" they currently enjoyed). A total of 25 routes were changed, affecting more than 80,000 riders. Many of the new routes were designed to terminate at the Anacostia station rather than continue into downtown Washington, as they once had.
  Metro officials admitted that fares for most Anacostia residents would rise an average of 50 percent, and that Anacostia residents would be forced to pay more and travel farther to access the services (such as doctors) and shopping most District residents had ready access to. To help mitigate the impact of the total fare increase on Anacostia residents, Metro reduced basic bus fares for many routes in the area from $1 to 35 cents. District residents protested the cuts with a picket line in front of Metro's downtown headquarters in late August 1991. Prince George's County residents, too, were angered by the bus route changes, arguing that Metro had promised more (not less) bus service and complaining that they would be forced to use a rail station located in the District of Columbia's most violent and crime-prone neighborhoods. More than 1,000 people packed "raucous" public hearings for three nights in the District and Prince George's County in early September, denouncing Metro and claiming they were "becoming a victim of transportational apartheid."
  Worried about the impact of the cuts as well as a possible bus boycott, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon announced on September 11, 1991, that she would seek an alternative to the changes proposed by Metro. But suburban commuters were angry that Metro would keep the bus routes open in Anacostia (at an estimated cost of $4 million) when their bus service had been cut at the time Metrorail stations opened in their areas. But D.C. residents countered that poor African American District citizens could ill-afford the same transit changes and fare increases that wealthy, white suburbanites were asked to absorb. Calls for a boycott increased in mid-September. On September 16, 1991, declaring that the city paid "40 percent of the Metro subsidy, but we're the last to get service," Mayor Dixon threatened to withhold the District's payment to Metro unless the bus changes were rescinded. Metro officials were angered by Dixon's statement, saying District officials had been involved in the bus route planning process for months. Mayor Dixon proposed on September 20 that Metro continue to use the Anacostia station as a hub, but also continue bus service into downtown D.C. The plan (estimated to cost less than $500,000 a year) would require residents to transfer at Anacostia station but would not raise the total fare to more than $1. A month later, Metro's board of directors unanimously agreed to accept Dixon's plan, and cancelled all planned route changes in the District of Columbia and Prince George's County.
  The cost of operating the bus routes totaled $2.5 million. Prince George's County, meanwhile, also announced that its county-run buses ("The Bus") would not run to Anacostia station as previously promised either, drawing outrage from D.C.'s representatives on Metro's board. The District of Columbia had spent more than $20 million adding bus bays at the station to accommodate The Bus arrivals. The compromise led residents to call off their boycott of Metrobus.
  Two months after the Anacostia station opened, Metro said that a study of bus and rail ridership showed that the unaltered bus routes were costing the transit agency $200,000 a m
caption: Extensive bus bays, added to the Anacostia station to accommodate the Prince George's County buses that never serviced the station
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