Chillum Road Line


The Chillum Road Line, designated as Routes F1 & F2, are daily bus routes operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority between Cheverly station of the Orange Line of the Washington Metro and Takoma station of the Red Line. The line operates every 25–38 minutes during peak hours, 60 minutes during weekday off peak hours, and 58–62 minutes on the weekends. Trips roughly take 50–60 minutes.

History

The Chillum Road Line initially started off as a streetcar line in the 1940s and simply consisted of the F3 Line, which operated between the Historic Mount Rainier streetcar terminal at the intersection of 34th Street & Rhode Island Avenue and intersection of Eastern Avenue NW & Laurel Avenue in Takoma Park, MD, and Eastern Avenue NW mostly operating via Rhode Island Avenue, Eastern Avenue NE, Queens Chapel Road, and Chillum Road. The F2 line operated as a completely different streetcar line between Mount Rainier terminal and Farragut Square in Downtown D.C. Both streetcar lines were later converted into bus routes in the 1950s and ultimately converted into Metrobus Routes on February 4, 1973 when WMATA acquired four failing private bus companies across the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area, and merged them together to form its own system.

Service Changes

1978 Changes

On February 19, 1978 when Takoma station opened, route F3 was rerouted to terminate at the newly opened station, instead of terminating at Eastern Avenue NW & Laurel Avenue in Takoma Park, MD creating the ′′′Chillum Road Line′′′. Route F2 also joined the Chillum Road Line, and was rerouted to operate alongside F3 between the intersection of 34th Street & Rhode Island Avenue in Mount Rainier, MD & Takoma station, instead of operating all the way up to Farragut Square.
The only difference would be that routes F2 & F3 would operate separately on their same exact streetcar routing between the intersection of 34th Street & Rhode Island Avenue & the intersection of Arundel Road & Russell Avenue in Mount Rainier while F2 would remain straight on 34th Street past the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue, then make a turn onto the intersection of Rainier Avenue, then make another turn onto the intersection of Upshur Street, and another turn onto the intersection of 28th Place, another turn onto the intersection of Russell Avenue to reach the intersection of Arundel Road but would make a right turn onto the intersection of Arundel Road, instead of making a turn onto Arundel Road.
Route F3 would make a turn from 34th Street onto the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue, then make a turn onto the intersection of Eastern Avenue NE, and then another turn onto Varnum Street, which turns into Arundel Road after a block north. Route F3 completely took over the segment of F2's routing along Varnum Street and Arundel Road between the intersections of Eastern Avenue & Russell Avenue, which was discontinued. At the intersection of Arundel Road & Russell Avenue, both F2 & F3 would rejoin each other and operate parallel to each other on the exact same routing to Takoma.
On December 3, 1978 shortly after Cheverly station opened, routes F2 and F3 were extended from the Mount Rainier terminus to operate to Cheverly, while F3 was further extended to operate to Columbia Park replacing parts of the former streetcar line route 88's routing between the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue & Eastern Avenue NE in Mount Rainier and the intersection of Cheverly Avenue & Columbia Park Road, in Cheverly, MD, when route 88 was discontinued.
Route F2 was also rerouted to make a turn onto the intersection of Eastern Avenue NE, and another turn to get back onto the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue while route F3 was rerouted to make a turn from the intersection of Eastern Avenue onto the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and no longer operate between the intersections of Rhode Island Avenue & 34th Street. Both routes would then operate parallel to each other between Rhode Island Avenue and Cheverly, following route 88's former routing via Rhode Island Avenue, 38th Street/38th Avenue, Bladensburg Road, Annapolis Road, Landover Road, Prince George's Hospital, Landover Road, Cheverly Avenue, and Columbia Park Road. Route F3 would then operate further east of Cheverly to its terminus at the intersection of East Marlboro Avenue & East Spring Street in the Columbia Park subdivision of Landover, via Columbia Park Road, Kent Village Drive, Flagstaff Street, and East Marlboro Avenue.

1993 Changes

On December 11, 1993, route F3 was discontinued and renamed, "Route F1", while F2 kept its route number the same. Route F1 was truncated to only operate between Takoma & Cheverly, similar to Route F2. The segment of Route F3 former routing between the Cheverly & Columbia Park, was replaced by new route F12, which was extended from Landover to Cheverly.
Routes F1 and F2 were rerouted to operate between Cheverly station & Prince George's Hospital, by serving Prince George's Hospital from the inside, instead of operating on Cheverly Avenue between the intersections of Columbia Park Road & Landover Road, and entering Prince George's Hospital from the intersection of Landover Road. Both routes would still exit the Prince George's Hospital when operating westbound towards Takoma station and still enter Prince George's Hospital from Landover Road when operating eastbound towards Cheverly. Route F2 former routing on Cheverly Avenue between the intersections of Columbia Park Road & Landover Road, was replaced by the extended route F13 from New Carrollton to Cheverly, and provide weekday service between Cheverly & Washington Business Park, and also fully taken over by route F8. In addition to the change, both routes went through minor rerouting change to serve West Hyattsville by deviating onto Queens Chapel Road before turning onto 25th Ave heading to Cheverly or straight towards Takoma.