I rode the bus to bypass closed Red Line stations. Here’s how long it took.

I tried making my morning commute during the Metro Red Line shutdown — and it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Metro and Montgomery County seem to have learned some lessons from the last closure of this magnitude. In the summer of 2024, Metro shuttered several stations on the eastern side of the county — including the busy Silver Spring and Takoma stations.

Commuters complained of longer rides and waiting in the heat for shuttle buses.

Construction this summer will shut down Metro’s Bethesda, Medical Center, Grosvenor-Strathmore and North Bethesda stops until Sept. 6.

The break in service will allow for the completion of construction projects at some stops, including a second mezzanine at the Bethesda station for the Purple Line, a light rail line that will travel between Bethesda and New Carrollton.

If my experience Wednesday morning is any indication, the disruption is less of a hassle for commuters this time around.

Still, commutes are longer, and it’s helpful to know a few things before hopping on Metro’s workaround — commercial buses that run between the closed stations.

Here’s what I learned.

Train to the bus

With coffee and my book club book in hand, I hopped the Red Line around 9 a.m. near my home in the eastern part of the county and rode it through D.C. toward Shady Grove.

Several times before the train approached the Friendship Heights station, announcements warned that it would be out of service.

It took me longer than expected to get from the train to the shuttle buses waiting in the street outside the station — a six-minute exit that included several escalator rides.

I was impressed by the helpful and upbeat workers tasked with directing riders to buses. I’m not sure if I’d be that chipper dealing with cranky commuters all morning.

At this juncture, you really have to pay attention and triple-check that you’re taking the bus you want — the express bus that zips from Friendship Heights to North Bethesda or the local bus that also makes stops at the two stations in between.

State Del. Marc Korman told me that he made that mistake in the early days of the closure, which began on July 6. He accidentally got on an express bus that bypassed his Bethesda stop.

Korman and other passengers who also didn’t want to wind up at North Bethesda had to backtrack on a local bus.

I was in the opposite situation — I wanted to make sure I took the express bus straight to North Bethesda, so I checked with a couple of Metro workers who told me that my bus awaited across the street. One of them said commuters often board the bus nearest the station, which won’t necessarily get them where they want to go.

I had just missed an express bus, and I worried as the temperature climbed to 90 that I’d be waiting a long time for the next one. But the next express bus was already taking passengers, so I climbed on.

Looking at only a sprinkling of fellow passengers, I wondered how long I would have to wait before we departed. How full do these buses have to get before they take off?

I pulled out my book to pass the time, but I read only a few pages — for four minutes — before we started moving.

With all due respect to Ride On and Metrobus, these touring-coach-style buses are way nicer. I found mine to be well air-conditioned, with very comfortable seats. I also experienced less bumpiness along the route than I’m used to on public buses.

But the trip — from the time I got off the train in Friendship Heights to the time I exited the shuttle bus — took 30 minutes. That’s at least twice the time Metro’s online calculators say it takes to get between the two stations by train. But I will say that I became so relaxed in my comfy seat, listening to my podcast, that I almost didn’t realize it was time to get off.

I’ve seen as many as 10 shuttle buses parked along Rockville Pike — and I was initially skeptical about the need for so many. But the sheer number seemed to allow my group of commuters to get to our destinations much more quickly. Drivers didn’t wait to make sure every seat was full before moving, and if they had, I think I would have gotten to work much later.

Learning from mistakes

County Council member Kate Stewart, who represents the area of the county impacted by the 2024 closures, said the county and Metro learned a lot from that experience.

“We made changes once we heard from residents and local businesses,” Stewart said. “We found that signage and clear road demarcations were really important, so people understood where to go.”

For this summer’s closure, the State Highway Administration installed 7.5 miles of bus lanes on portions of Rockville Pike between the Friendship Heights and North Bethesda stations.

Some of the bus lanes established in 2024 remain because they moved buses so effectively, according to transit officials. This could happen again with the new bus lanes. County officials say the northern segment of the bus lanes, stretching from the Beltway to Marinelli Road, will be evaluated to see if it should be made permanent.

Did I get lucky?

I know some commuters have had far worse experiences than mine since July 6.

“The first day was abysmal — I waited at Bethesda for 35 minutes!” one rider lamented in the comments section of a Metro Instagram post about the closures.

“This closure ruined my entire summer, no offense,” wrote another.

I sympathize.

But for me at least, if the choice is between these buses and sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Beltway, I’ll take the buses.