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Burtonsville and East County residents now have an easier way to get to the airport.

Two Intercounty Connector bus routes opened Tuesday. ICC Bus Route 201 will connect the Gaithersburg Park and Ride with BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, while stopping at the Burtonsville Park and Ride along the way.

This will be the first bus route to connect the Baltimore airport with the Burtonsville Park and Ride, which is located behind the former locatino of the Giant Food store in the Burtonsville Crossing Shopping Center.

"It is a good sign," said Tom Aylward, East County Citizens Advisory Board member. "That's one of the things we need the ICC to do, is provide the big movement of people throughout the county."

The route will travel south from Gaithersburg on Interstate 270 to Interstate 370, which becomes the ICC. The route will stop at the Shady Grove Metrorail station before continuing down the ICC to the Norbeck Park and Ride. It will then take Route 28 to Route 198, where it stops at the Burtonsville Park and Ride before taking I-95 to the Baltimore airport.

Aylward said he thought it would make traveling to the airport easier for Burtonsville residents, but would not have any sort of economic impact on the area, because the Park and Ride is not near any retail stores.

"The way I see it, is that it's a huge link for people," Aylward said.

The buses run once an hour seven days a week. A one-way trip will cost $5. Bus fare, however, is free through March 14. Service from Gaithersburg lasts from 4 a.m. to 5 p.m. and return trips from BWI airport run from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

ICC Bus Route 202 also opened Tuesday. It connects the Gaithersburg Park and Ride with Fort Meade. It is designed to serve employees at the National Security Agency and Forte Meade.

The first seven-mile stretch of the ICC opened Feb. 23. It connects Interstate 370 at Shady Grove and Route 97 near Rockville and Olney. It will be free to use through Sunday. The ICC will eventually be an 18.8-mile toll road that is projected to cost $2.6 billion when completed.

Three more bus routes will open on the ICC when more of the toll road is constructed, Maryland Transit Administration spokesman David Clark said. Their routes are, as of yet, undetermined, Clark said.

ktousignant@gazette.net