BALTIMORE, MD - The Maryland Transit Administration today announced enhancements designed to improve service for transit customers in the Baltimore region. Beginning Sunday, August 26, 2007 with its regular Fall Schedule Change, the MTA will implement schedule changes on nine bus lines and introduce permanent cost-effective enhancements to Light Rail and Metro Subway.
"The enhancements we announce today for MTA Bus, Light Rail and Metro Subway are common sense, cost-effective ways to improve the quality of our transit service for the residents of the region," said Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari. "Governor O'Malley's vision is to create an efficient, effective transit network that is both easy to use and convenient. These enhancements deliver on this commitment."
For Metro Subway, MTA will increase the frequency of trains that operate between 7 PM and Midnight from 22 minutes to 11 minutes in each direction on weekdays and from 22 minutes to 15 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays. This means that the average wait for a train will be cut in half for customers who ride on weekday nights. Frequencies during the weekday peak hours will remain the same as the current schedule.
For Light Rail, MTA will eliminate the need to change trains for those customers traveling between Penn Station and Camden Yards. Currently, those riders must change to connecting trains at the Mt. Royal station. With the new Penn-Camden Shuttle, Penn Station riders, and anyone using Light Rail along the Howard Street corridor, will be able to reach their destinations directly, without the change of trains. This will provide a significant customer service enhancement for riders destined for either train station, as well as riders who live and work on the Westside and use Light Rail to travel up and down Howard Street. Destination signs on the Light Rail trains will read "Penn Station" for northbound trains and "Camden Yards " for southbound trains. The route will be shown on MTA system maps in red. Penn-Camden Shuttles will run every 20 to 30 minutes during morning and evening rush hours, and every 30 minutes during non-rush hour periods and on weekends.
Some of the highlighted improvements to the Local Bus service are on the 35 Line adding one trip from White Marsh during the afternoon peak to address overcrowding and the 64 Line routing adding service between Curtis Bay and Waterview Avenue and additional service on Saturdays to improve reliability.
The MTA makes adjustments to scheduled operations three times a year during the Winter, Summer and Fall months coordinating with school schedules.
The following is a complete list of the improvements to take place on Local Bus:
August 2007
| Line | Modifications to Route | | No. 1 Line - | One inbound afternoon trip will be starting at Sinai Hospital instead of Mondawmin Metro Station. | | No. 5 Line - | Two additional early morning trips from Cedonia to Downtown added to address overcrowding. | | No. 12 Line - | Only one roundtrip in the mid-afternoon to match demand from Stella Maris employees. | | No. 19 Line - | One additional morning trip from Northern Parkway to State Center. | | No. 20 Line - | Selected morning trips extended to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS). | | No. 23 Line - | Two Express trips converted to Local service. | | No. 35 Line - | One additional trip from White Marsh during the afternoon peak period to address overcrowding. | | No. 40 Line - | Selected morning trips extended to CMMS. | | No. 64 Line - | Added service between Curtis Bay and Waterview Avenue, and additional service on Saturdays to improve reliability. | | No. 77 Line - | One additional round trip added during the afternoon peak to address overcrowding. |
Maps and timetables reflecting these changes will be available approximately one week prior to the change on MTA's website, www.mtamaryland.com, at MTA's Transit Store at 6 St. Paul Street in downtown Baltimore, and at all regular schedule distribution locations.
For information on MTA services, please visit the MTA website at www.mtamaryland.com. Customers can also call the MTA Customer Call Center Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at (410) 539-5000 or
(866) RIDE-MTA.
CONTACT:
Holly Henderson
Cheron Victoria Wicker
MTA Communications
(410) 767-3936
MD RELAY (800) 732-2258 |
