I rode the Circulator, a new bus service, this week. I live a few blocks from Union Station and work at Farragut North. For the last year and a half I've been riding the D6, a DC Metrobus whose route includes a run past Union Station, out K Street, to Georgetown (Wisconsin and P). The Circulator runs from Union Station, out K Street, to Georgetown (Wisconsin and M).

The Washington Post reported that the Circulator – the brainchild of the National Capital Planning Commission working with two business groups and the Convention Center – was paid for with "$12.5 million from a 1960s legal settlement earmarked for city bus service." But the money wasn't given to the city's Metrobus system. First Transit, a private transportation company that runs several bus systems in the metropolitan area, will operate the Circulator. According to the Post, First Transit was awarded the money because it can "do the job for less – $57 for one hour of service per bus compared to $76 charged by Metro."

Metro, instead of netting over $12 million, will receive an annual payment of $519,000 (in hush money?) to "manage" the Circulator.

The District of Columbia has an existing bus system that is desperate for money to buy new buses and hire maintenance workers and drivers – and $12 million of the city's money goes to a private tourist bus line? Does anyone know the story behind that 1960s settlement? Where did this money come from, and how did it fall into the hands of a private company? And who can tell me how much these brand new buses imported from Belgium cost compared with the price of a Metrobus? (See "My Ride on the Circulator," below.)

Could the downtown business groups' intention to privatize city buses also be a new-millenium code for passenger segregation? The Circulator, while serving city residents, was designed to shuttle visitors from Union Station and the Convention Center to popular points of interest. But why then couldn't the D6, already used by city residents, be given a makeover and marketed as a way to get from Union Station to Georgetown?

This all sounds too much like private interests pillaging the public's money. Karl Rove and the boys have made the federal government into a festival of outsourcing, privatizing and union-busting (by the way, Metrobus drivers are unionized and First Transit's are not), but I expect more from my local government – especially one controlled by Democrats.

My Ride on the Circulator

I was running late and missed my regular Metrobus, so I walked to Union Station to jump on the Metro. Instead, I boarded a waiting Circulator, looking forward to a cool ride on a ritzy new bus.

The Circulator has far fewer seats than even a small Metrobus, and most of the seats can be reached only by climbing a single tall step (not very accessible to the elderly). The inside of the bus is nondescript. Aside from the colored fabric on the seats, there is no color, no signage, no nothing.

There was also no air conditioning. Thinking that the bus was just starting its trip, I patiently waited for the AC to kick in as I settled into a seat about two-thirds of the way back. It felt like 140 degrees. The seat itself was hot, and I found myself in a brand new bus, ambling up Massachusetts Avenue, sweating profusely. The windows on the Circulator do not open.

When a seat two rows closer to the front opened up, I moved, hoping the air conditioning was just lame at the rear. It felt like 100 degrees, and although marginally cooler, this certainly isn't the way to travel during a Washington summer.

At the Convention Center, an older woman with three girls boarded the bus and moved to the space that I had just vacated. After a couple of blocks, the woman called out, "Can you put on the air conditioning?" The driver answered, "We're having some problems." In disbelief I yelled out, "On a brand new bus?" The driver turned around and said, "We bought these from Belgium and don't know how to operate them yet."

There are no route maps inside the Circulator. When we reached 11th and K, someone pushed the "next stop" button, and since the Circulator does not pull in at every bus stop, the driver had to yell, "The next stop isn't until 14th Street!"

When I got off at Connecticut Avenue, on a day with the temperature in the 90s, it was significantly cooler outside than on the bus. So, what we have here are brand new buses without air conditioning in the rear half – and since they're from Belgium, we don't know how to operate them yet. Are the instruction manuals written in Dutch?