Next week the 16th Street bus line will become the latest to get the MetroExtra treatment. I’m not sure if any of the buses will actually use the MetroExtra paint scheme, but the service will be reworked to provide both local and express buses. The schedule and map for the express S9 route are available here (H/T Dr. Gridlock).

Will this be a faster way to get from McPherson to Columbia Heights? I picked a random start time (4:00 pm) and plugged it into WMATA’s trip planner to compare the travel time of Metrorail to S9 bus. Trip planner says it takes 26 minutes to make the trip via Metro (with a 9 minute layover at L’Enfant), while the S9’s schedule says it will take only 15 on the new express bus. 26-9=17, so even discounting wait time and going strictly by travel time, the bus should be faster. Of course you have to wait for the bus too, but the S9 will have Metro-like 10 minute headways, so wait time should be about a wash.

The S9 will have limited hours, but it seems that if you’re moving between Mid-City and downtown during those hours it could very well be a faster option than the train. I’ll definitely be trying it out.

PS: Don’t take this post as an endorsement of BRT as superior to rail in an overall sense. I’m talking speed here, but there are numerous other ways Metro is vastly superior to any bus. At the very, very least it is worth mentioning that the S9 will have a harder time sticking to its schedule, since it will be operating in mixed-traffic. Being better than a typical bus isn’t the same as being better than rail.