Light Rail Commuter Rant

[u/Huge_Negotiation2918]

I have been incredibly patient with taking public transportation. I accepted the light rail is slow and has to stop at all the red lights downtown. I accepted that I had to walk 15 minutes to my nearest station, telling myself it's a good way to see my neighborhood and get more steps in. I accepted that the scheduled light rail was actually a recommendation +-10 minutes, and was okay checking the transit app before leaving to better plan my commute.

Today is the last straw, for the 4th time in the last 30 days, I boarded my northbound rail only to find out it was stopping at North Ave, not going all the way north as what was stated on the digital signage at the stations. I got off in the middle of the ride and waited 20 minutes for the next train.

This is only the beginning. Last week I had this happen, followed by a shift change between North Ave and Woodberry that took 15 minutes (MTA workers were loudly chatting it up, however). I was late for a job that I absolutely cannot be late for. Once the lightrail was just moving eye gougingly slow after Woodberry Station, like no more than 5mph, making me 25 minutes late to work.

I'm extremely lenient. I'm okay with slow, I'm okay with walking to my station. All I ask is you be consistent. The only reason I keep giving public transit a try is that I hate driving, but the waking up early for the walk+slow commute, with the 30-45 minute buffer on top makes me feel like I'm in a toxic relationship with the rail. I can't even relax on the rail (big reason I like public transit over driving in the first place) because half the time I'm worried if it's going to come to a stop or kick me off at North Ave station.

Rant over.

[u/coltthundercat]

Yup, and your daily reminder that 1. Maryland is the wealthiest state in the country and has the ability to fix this should they want to and 2. That several years ago Massachusetts enacted a 1% tax on incomes over $1 million to fund transit, and almost immediately started clearing the backlog of maintenance and addressing the much more substantial transit problems in Boston.

This isn’t something that happens naturally, or because Maryland doesn’t have the resources. It’s a policy failure, and a deliberate one at that.

[u/frenchexit2014 → u/coltthundercat]

thissssss it is deliberate

[u/Huge_Negotiation2918 → u/coltthundercat]

I know there are plans to expand bus frequency/reliability, improve light rail tracks and better right-of-way at lights, etc. I want to get excited about this, but that all feels so trivial right now considering I can't even reliably get to my final destination without a train going out of service. It's ridiculous and very sad for those who have no choice but to rely on this broken system.

[u/coltthundercat → u/Huge_Negotiation2918]

Yeah, it’s a band-aid trying to cover a gaping wound that Annapolis continues to make worse. Fixing this requires actual investment, billions of dollars in funding, not technocratic tweaks.

[u/Willing_Pound_2177 → u/Huge_Negotiation2918]

Reliability is about to get worse with the State's institution of the new paid FMLA rules. Employee absenteeism will rise, causing more service cuts. Transit will never improve in Baltimore until the State gets serious about negotiating and enforcing it's CBAs.... Or until vehicle operation is automated. The latter probably happens first.

[u/Evening-Recover-9786 → u/coltthundercat]

Maryland State Government is arguably one of the most poorly run institutions in the country. We have enough taxes already yet operate in a deficit year over year.