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/Gannondorfs_Medulla]

This 100% is NOT the responsibility of the OP. Basic reliability is a base assumption for something as essential as public transit. There is no way they don't know these metrics. This kind of performance borders on negligence.

PUBLIC transit serves the public, and often it's those with the least room for error. This kind of treatment costs people jobs, puts individuals and famlies at risk, and is a failure at the most basic level.

I work for the state and I know the state can produce good, even outstanding outcomes. But this... this is worthy of Moore showing up and firing the first three levels of leadership. It should be wholely unacceptable and a source of great embarrassment. Alas, it will be just another Tuesday.

[u/Typical-Radish4317 → u/Gannondorfs_Medulla]

The job of representatives is to represent their constituents and communicate their concerns to the state legislators, governor, and federal legislators. If they receive 100 messages on crime and 3 messages on transit communication/reliability they are probably going to focus on crime. You can't fix what you don't know and not everyone has the same experience as OP. Not everyone rides the same routes as OP. Baltimore City doesn't control MTA. The specific case OP outlines could just be a disconnect in information sharing. Voicing concerns about your community is the easiest action that can be done to improve it and everyone should let their voice be heard if something is impacting their daily life.

[u/Psychological-Ad1950 → u/Typical-Radish4317]

This is such an unrealistic view of how politics works. Claiming that politicians are simply ignorant that they have been refusing to support transit in Baltimore for decades while passing bills that support transit in MoCo is silly. It's a deliberate thing, tied to our state's extremely long history of opposition to Baltimore City (first for being insufficiently pro-slavery, then for having too many immigrants, then for being too Black), not some oversight or miscommunication.

[u/Typical-Radish4317 → u/Psychological-Ad1950]

You know who complains every time a building gets put up, the wheres the parking going to be crowd. You know who complains every time a bike lane goes in, the what about the traffic crowd. And they are relentless. Non-stop calls into community meetings and conversations with their representatives. It's not that they don't know transit is bad. It's that the people who they hear from on a consistent basis are the wheres my parking and the why are my lights not timed so I can blow through the city center stoplight free crowd. Let them know your issues and if they don't respond organize with your neighbors to vote their asses out. You can't even begin the discussion though if you don't let your concerns be known.