Landover Road Line

The Landover Road Line, designated Route L12 is a daily bus route operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority between Downtown Largo station of the Blue and Silver Lines of the Washington Metro and Capital Plaza Mall. The line operates every 20 minutes between 7AM and 9PM, and 30-60 minutes after 9PM. Route L12 trips roughly take 48 minutes. The line was a portion of the A12, which was split into two separate routes beginning on June 25, 2023.

Current route
Route L12 operates daily between Capital Plaza and Downtown Largo station providing service among the Landover community. Route L12 currently gets its buses out of Landover division.

L12 Stops


History
The first proposal for a new Route L12 happened in 2012 when WMATA proposed to split the A12 into two routes with the A12 running between Addison Road station and New Carrollton station 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 will operate the A12 routing between Capital Plaza and Largo Town Center 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. Highway 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.

The reason for the changes was that WMATA wanted to have one route running primarily along Martin Luther King Jr. Highway (A12) and another route running primarily on Landover Road (L12). However public feedback was opposed to the route change, which led WMATA to shelve the plans.

Later during WMATA's 2024 Fiscal Year Budget in March 2023, WMATA brought back the A12 and L12 proposal from 2014, which was almost identical to the original proposal. However one difference was route F14 would not be rerouted along Landover Road and instead remain on Brightest Road. Subsequently, the FY2024 budget was approved in April 2023, which included a new Route L12.

In June 2023, WMATA announced the new L12 will begin service on June 25, 2023. The line would be named under the Landover Road Line and will operate every 20 minutes between Downtown Largo station and Capital Plaza via Lottsford Road, Woodmore Towne Centre, Landover Road, Greenleaf Road, Matthew Henson Avenue, Barlowe Road, Fire House Road, Hawthorne Street, Pinebrook Avenue, Landover Station, Hospital Drive, and Annapolis Road, replacing the A12 which was rerouted to serve New Carrollton station beginning along the intersection of Glenarden Parkway & Martin Luther King Jr. Highway.