Baltimore adds eight new Charm City Circulator buses downtown

Baltimore’s free downtown shuttle got its biggest fleet refresh in years as eight new Charm City Circulator buses entered service, a move city officials said is aimed at cutting breakdowns, reducing maintenance delays and making rides more dependable for commuters, workers and visitors moving through the core of the city.

The new buses were the first added to the Circulator fleet since 2020, and they replace older vehicles that had been carrying riders for more than 15 years. Baltimore City Department of Transportation said the Circulator carried 1.4 million passenger trips in 2025, its highest ridership since before the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes reliability a pressing issue for a system that helps people move between downtown offices, hotels, attractions and transit hubs.

Each new bus was manufactured by Gillig in California and is a 40-foot heavy-duty diesel vehicle. The buses include ADA-accessible features such as low-floor boarding, wheelchair ramps, updated announcement systems and LED signage, along with automatic passenger counters, vehicle locators, GPS and front-mounted bike racks that can hold up to two bicycles per bus.

The purchase was funded by a $3.4 million CARES Act grant and $1.1 million in local funding. Baltimore describes the Circulator as 24 free shuttles on five routes in central Baltimore, with more than 100 stops across neighborhoods including Mount Vernon, Federal Hill, Harbor East, the University of Maryland campus area and the Johns Hopkins Hospital campus. The five lines are the Green, Purple, Orange, Banner and Cherry routes, with service frequencies ranging from every 10 minutes on the Orange Route to every 40 minutes on the Banner Route.

The new buses also fit into a broader transit plan that Baltimore completed in 2021 and 2022 for the Circulator and Harbor Connector. That plan has already helped shape route changes, including the Cherry Route launch serving Cherry Hill in 2024 and the later expansion of the Green Route into Broadway East, Oliver and East Baltimore Midway, along with the Orange Route extension to Maritime Park. Baltimore had added six new Circulator buses in 2021, but the latest purchase marks the first major fleet update since 2020 and gives the city a clearer chance to address the wear-and-tear that has shadowed the system for years.