The Martin Luther King Jr. Highway Line, designated Route A12 is a daily bus route operated by the

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional public transit agency that operates transit services in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA provides rapid transit servic ...

between

Addison Road station Addison Road station is a rapid transit station on the Washington Metro's Silver and Blue Lines. It is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, who opened it in 1980. It was the eastern end of the Blue Line until 2004. T ...

of the

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

and Silver Lines of the

Washington Metro The Washington Metro, often abbreviated as the Metro and formally the Metrorail, is a rapid transit system serving the Washington metropolitan area of the United States. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ...

and

New Carrollton station New Carrollton station is a joint Washington Metro, MARC Train, MARC, and Amtrak station just outside the city limits of New Carrollton, Maryland, New Carrollton, Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County, Maryland located at the ...

of the Orange Line of the Washington Metro. The line operates every 20 minutes between 7 AM and 9 PM, 30 minutes after 9 PM weekdays and 60 minutes after 9 PM weekends. Route A12 trips roughly take 30 minutes. On Sundays, Route A12 is extended to

Capitol Heights station Capitol Heights station is an island-platformed Washington Metro station in Capitol Heights, Maryland, United States. The station was opened on November 22, 1980, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). P ...

replacing a portion of route F14.

Current route

Route A12 operates daily between

and

providing service among the Landover community. On Sundays, route A12 is extended to

replacing a portion of route F14 since the F14 does not run on Sundays. Route A12 currently gets its buses out of Landover division.

A12 Stops

History

The Martin Luther King Jr. Highway Line began in 1978 consisting of routes A11, A12, A13, A15, and A17. Routes A11 and A12 operated between Capital Plaza and

Federal Triangle Federal Triangle is a Triangle, triangular area in Washington, D.C., formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large c ...

in Downtown Washington D.C., via Annapolis Road, Baltimore Washington Parkway, Landover Road, Palmer Highway, Marlboro Pike, Pennsylvania Avenue, Independence Avenue, and Constitution Avenue. Route A13 operated between Federal Triangle and Washington Business Park and routes A15 and A17 provided weekday peak hour service between Dodge Park and Federal Triangle. Route A12 originally operated by the Bradbury Heights Bus Line as the Kent Village Line in 1922. It then operated under the Washington Marlboro & Annapolis Motor Lines Inc. (WM&A). It also operated under the District Heights Line but was later replaced by the P12 and V14. The line was later acquired by WMATA on February 4, 1973. On November 21, 1978 when Landover station opened, routes A11, A13, A15, and A17 were discontinued and route A12 was shorten to

Potomac Avenue station Potomac Avenue station is an island-platformed Washington Metro station in the Hill East neighborhood of Washington, D.C., U.S.. The station was opened on July 1, 1977, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (W ...

discontinuing service to Downtown. Routes A11, A15, and A17 were replaced by both route A12 and the Orange Line while route A13 was replaced by route F13. On November 22, 1980, when

and

opened, A12 was shortened even further to operate between Capital Plaza and Addison Road station Mondays through Saturdays, as both the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

and

Blue Lines ''Blue Lines'' is the debut studio album by English electronic music group Massive Attack, released on 8 April 1991 by Wild Bunch and Virgin Records. The recording was led by members Grantley "Daddy G" Marshall, Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian " ...

would provide much faster and direct service between much of

Prince George's County Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous ...

and Downtown Washington D.C. Route A12 was also extended to operate to

via, East Capitol Street on Sundays replacing a portion of route F14 which doesn't operate on Sundays. Route A11 was also reincarnated on November 22, 1980 to make a one way trip between Capital Plaza to

on Saturday mornings only before the first Orange Line trip from the

departs. Route A11 would mainly operate using the A12's former routing between Capital Plaza and the Federal Triangle in Downtown Washington D.C., except it would not serve Landover station. In 1983, route A15 was reincarnated to operate between Capital Plaza and

via Landsdowne Village Apartments in Landover during weekday peak periods using the same routing as A12 but instead serving Landsdowne Village Apartments. On December 15, 2004, route A15 was discontinued and replaced by routes A11, A12, and Prince George's County's The Bus Route 22. Alternative service was provided by routes A12 between Capital Plaza and Landover Mall and The Bus Route 22 operated between Landover Mall and Landsdowne Village Apartments, via Morgan Boulevard station. Even after Landover Mall had closed in 2002, routes A11 & A12 would still loop around the former mall due to

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

still being opened. On March 30, 2014, both A11 & A12 were rerouted to no longer serve the former site of the Landover Mall and were rerouted to operate along Brightseat Road, Glenarden Parkway, Ardwick Ardmore Road, Martin Luther King Jr. Highway, via route F14's routing, to provide weekly Metrobus service to Glenarden, due to Sears announcing that its Landover store will close in March 2014. This routing gives direct bus service to Landover station as it was only previously provided between Glenarden and

. On March 29, 2015, route A11 was discontinued making route A12 the only Route to operate the Martin Luther King Jr. Highway Line. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, route A12 was reduced to operate on its Saturday supplemental schedule beginning on March 16, 2020. However beginning on March 18, 2020, route A12 was further reduced to operate on its Sunday schedule operating between Capital Plaza and Capitol Heights station. Weekend service was also suspended beginning on March 21, 2020. Weekend service was restored on a limited basis on July 18, 2020. Full service resumed on August 23, 2020. On September 5, 2021, Route A12 service was increased to operate every 20 minutes daily between 7:00 AM and 9:00 PM.

Line Split

In 2014, WMATA proposed to split the A12 into two routes with the A12 running between

and

via Brightseat Road and Ardwick Industrial Park and discontinuing service to Capital Plaza and Landover station primarily running along Martin Luther King Jr. Highway. A new Route L12 would operate the A12 routing between Capital Plaza and Largo Town Center (now ) station via Landover station and Woodmore Town Center primarily running on Landover Road via Palmer Park and Hawthorne Street running along the old A12 routing. Stops between Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy and Brightseat Road will be replaced by a rerouted route F14 which will discontinue service along a portion of Brightseat Road being replaced by Route A12. Public feedback however opposed to the changes and the reroutes were not implemented. In 2023, WMATA brought back the proposed A12 and L12 route split which is roughly the same as the 2014 proposals, however, the F14 would not be rerouted along Brightseat Road. On June 25, 2023, route A12 was changed to operate between

following its regular route between Addison Road and the intersection of Glenarden Parkway & Martin Luther King Jr. Highway, then operate along the F14 route between Hayes Street, Johnson Avenue, Ardwick-Ardmore Road and Pennsy Drive to New Carrollton. A12 service between Capital Plaza Mall and Landover Road & Barlowe Road was replaced by Route L12, which operates between Capital Plaza Mall and Downtown Largo station via Woodmore Towne Centre.

Later Changes

As part of WMATA's Better Bus Redesign beginning on June 29, 2025, the A12 was modified to no longer operate inside Glenarden or Palmer Park, and instead remain straight along Martin Luther King Jr. Highway between New Carrollton and Addison Road station. The route then combines with the P12, operating between Addison Road and

Suitland station Suitland station is an island platformed Washington Metro station in Suitland, Maryland, United States. The station was opened on January 13, 2001, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The station is lo ...

. The new line was renamed into the P60. The A12 designation was given to the former 10B route.

References

{{Reflist

External links

A12 Martin Luther King Jr. Highway Line
– wmata.com A12