M Route Bus to Make More Evening Trips

The “M Route” bus that shuttles Piney Orchard residents to the Odenton MARC station will be getting some tweaks to its schedule, including expanded evening service.

Central Maryland Regional Transit, which operates the route in cooperation with the county, has shortened the window of time the bus operates in the morning, but will also operate a bit later in the evening and will be adding more trips.

The changes go into effect on Aug. 6.

Many of the changes to the schedule show differences of only a few minutes. But here are the most significant changes:

• The bus will make 13 trips in the evening, up from eight under the current schedule.
• In the evening, buses will leave the MARC station every 25 minutes. Previously, wait times varied from 20 minutes to more than an hour.
• The bus will make nine morning trips instead of 10.
• The final morning bus from Piney Orchard Village Center will depart for the MARC station at 7:50 a.m., or 24 minutes earlier than in the past.
• The final evening bus from the MARC station will depart at 8:10 p.m., which is 12 minutes later than in the past.

The M Route bus will continue to make stops throughout Piney Orchard, traveling down Piney Orchard Parkway, on Waugh Chapel Road and Strawberry Lake Way, and then back to the MARC station.

The cost for each ride is $1. The bus runs Monday through Friday and monthly passes are available at CMRT.org.