Criticism of MTA Maryland

The Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore, Maryland has been subject to numerous criticisms over the past years from riders on its transit system. Other critics include delegates, community activists, and other advocates.

Criticism has included that the system is slow, that its buses (even The New ones) break down far too often; and that the system is too unreliable to ensure that workers on wage-based work can get to their jobs on time, and that many areas where such workers need to reach have little or no bus service. In addition, suburban bus service on busy corridors is very minimal, and some suburban communities have no service at all.

Bus

Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative

In the summer of 2005, MTA announced a proposed sweeping overhaul of the bus system that they dubbed the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative (GBBI). The plan included changes to all but six of the area's then 59 local bus lines as well as some express and commuter services. Among these modifications were extensions, consolidations, and in some cases, elimination of service. But all were described by MTA as improvements. According to MTA, these changes, for the most part, were designed to make bus service in the Baltimore area simpler and more efficient. But they were heavily criticized by riders, advocates, and the local media. Opponents stated that most of these changes made the service difficult, if not impossible, for riders.

On October 23, 2005, the original date these changes were planned, a scaled-back version of GBBI was implemented. Modifications were made to just twenty lines. These changes were supposedly considered to be among the least controversial. Yet they were still heavily criticized. As a result, on February 5, 2006, some of the modified bus lines saw farther improvement.

In March 2006, MTA announced without prior notice that in just three months, Phase II of GBBI would be implemented. Changes would be made to 23 bus lines, all without any hearings. This drew concern from community leaders and the Maryland General Assembly, which passed a law prohibiting any changes unless several stipulations were met, including at least hearing.

MTA met all the stipulations specified by the General Assembly. In October 2006, additional improvements were made on five more lines. However, any further changes to other lines were delayed in 2007 when Martin O'Malley took over as governor, and MTA waited for his administration's stamp of approval.

In May 2007, MTA canceled the remainder of GBBI, and announced that instead, a Small number of changes would be made three times each year.

One month later, MTA made changes on 19 bus lines 1. Most of these changes were very minor, usually involving the addition of a small number of trips to the schedule, adding more time to certain trips, or rescheduling certain trips to coordinate with other services. The most significant improvement took place on Route 15, on which service returned to its old route on Forest Park Avenue, and the White Marsh branch became full time.

Light Rail

The light rail has many stops along its route, and allows access from a wide range of areas, but it also slows the speed of the system.

The stations are not evenly spaced. While some areas have multiple stations all within a close walk of one another, other segments have no stops for several miles.

There are only minimal amounts of parking available at stations. Many stations in residential neighborhoods have fewer than 100 parking spaces, which on a typical weekday, are filled early. Other stations have no parking at all.

In Anne Arundel County, bus service connecting to most stops is minimal. This limits the use of the line by commuters to jobs in the county. Additionally, many stations in the county have no parking, making them useless for most.

There is no direct link to the subway, requiring paying fare twice (as with other intermodal transfers in the MTA system) and walking above ground to accomplish intermodal trips. This has been mitigated with the unification of ticketing systems over bus, light rail, and subway systems (on-going) -- A day pass can be bought which allows access to all three.

While operating on downtown streets, trains must stop at red lights (although trains use their own set of signals), which also reduces overall speed. Technology that would allow traffic signals to be preempted for trains has been installed in other cities, but there are no concrete plans for Baltimore as of yet.

Many of these factors negatively affect ridership, and comparing ridership numbers to that of similar systems, the Light Rail system does not boast high cost efficiency, though it is hoped that future expansion of the light rail system will boost utility and passenger use.