By Charlie Youngmann
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland —The state’s Office of Legislative Audits uncovered potential conflicts of interest among contracts made by a former Maryland Transit Administration employee, according to a report released Monday.
One year after Gov. Larry Hogan’s much-heralded $135 million bus system redesign, BaltimoreLink bus ridership is down and on-time performance for both LocalLink and CityLink high-frequency buses is below MTA goals.
After the state signed a $45,000 endorsement deal with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco to use his face on city buses, some in Baltimore are asking: Why can’t the state spend the money to restore later hours for free transit rides for city schools students?
If having your face showcased on a fleet of city buses is any sign of an NFL quarterback’s quality, Joe Flacco may just be elite.
Three-quarters of Baltimore buses are equipped to record passengers’ conversations.
Despite what I’m sure a lot of good-hearted people working hard to manage Maryland’s public transportation systems, reliability problems with MTA lines — at least in Baltimore — are outrageous and long-standing. Earlier this year, Eric Hatch laid out 12 ideas for improving public transit in the city, most suggesting relatively large-scale changes: new stops, expanded schedules, that kind of thing.
But while we’re waiting for those changes to take place, how about this idea, cribbed from the other MTA. According to a recent article in the New York Times, subway passengers who are late to work because of train delays can request an official note to show their bosses.
On weekdays, the MTA Route 27 bus runs every 20 minutes from roughly 4:30 a.m. to 2:45 a.m. between the Reisterstown Plaza subway station and Port Covington, with stops in Hampden, Remington, Station North, downtown, and a few other locations. Or at least, it’s supposed to do that. But for frequent riders of the line, it’s matchless unreliability has become legendary. People who’ve had to deal with it on the regular tend to type in all caps when answering questions about it. For real.
Baltimore playwright Lola Pierson took the 27 in her high school days, but after one too many times waiting in vain, she gave up and started walking her route instead. “The 27 wouldn’t come for like an hour, and then three in a row would come!” Pierson recalls. “Plus, they would do route alterations and not tell you, so you’d end up somewhere totally crazy with no way to get home.”
