The End of the H Street Shuttle?

I received the following note reminding me that the H Street Shuttle goes away after December 31st:

I hope all is well. As you know the H Street Shuttle service is coming to an end effective December 31st. We have been circulating the attached notice to businesses and riders on the H Street Corridor. If there is anything you can do to help circulate the notice it would be greatly appreciated. Many business will be tremendously affected by this.

It's true that this is really going to hurt businesses on H Street (and in the Capital Diner area, as that stretch is served by the same shuttle). Wouldn't it make sense to keep it going until the streetcar is up and running, or at least until construction is complete? Concerned about the shuttle? You might want to send a quick note to Tommy Wells and Harry Thomas. You can reach them at twells[at]dccouncil.us and hthomas@dccouncil.us.

Here's more info from another email forwarded to me. I think this one lays it out pretty well:

Here are the ridership numbers for the shuttle.  I was immediately struck by the impact that stopping this service could have on the neighborhood.

Subject: H Street Shuttle ridership numbers

Please find below ridership numbers as per our conversation. Please note that there was an event booked at the Atlas relying on transporting its customers using the H Street Shuttle. Since they just received the news about the H Street shuttle service being terminated,  they are frustrated and reconsidering their future booking.

Month	2009	2010
January	0	3688
February	0	3925
March	1425	4854
April	1426	5,158
May	5110	4923
June	4560	5187
July	6218	5831
August	6376	6016
September	4604	5913
October	4814	6991
November	4475
December	2107
Totals	41115	52486