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The Charm City Circulator, Baltimore’s free bus system, resumed limited services on each route Monday.
The Banner route, between Fort McHenry and the Inner Harbor, and the Green route, between City Hall, Fells Point and Johns Hopkins Hospital, will operate every 40 minutes.
The Purple route, between Federal Hill and 33rd Street, and the Orange route, between Hollins Market and Harbor East, will operate every 60 minutes.
The transit system has been out of commission as its new operator, First Transit, takes over operation of the fleet. First Transit took over the operations of the Circulator system last year on Dec. 31. RMA Worldwide Transportation, a Rockville-based chauffeur service, had operated the bus service for four years.
Transdev Services Inc., which operated the Circulator from 2010 to 2018,acquired First Transit in October 2022. The City of Baltimore sued Transdev after alleging the company overbilled $20 million for its services.
Following a court decision, a Baltimore judge concluded that the city and Transdev would settle and threw out the lawsuit. The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.
The city’s Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to request for comment, but said in a tweet that it has not set an exact date for when regularly scheduled bus frequency would resume.
The Circulator normally runs from Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday, 7 a.m.-midnight; Saturday, 9 a.m.-midnight; and Sunday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
penelope.blackwell@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Penelope Blackwell is a Breaking News reporter with The Banner. Previously, she covered local government in Durham, NC, for The News & Observer. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Morgan State University and her master’s in journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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