The Baltimore Metro SubwayLink (Metro) has been closed since Feb. 11 due to emergency repairs and will likely remain closed until March 11. The shutdown took place with less than 24 hours of notice to commuters.
The Maryland Transit Administration’s press release stated that the Metro rails had an amount of wear that could have potentially derailed a train and could not wait until the summer to fix. In a November 2016 geometric evaluation, 17 out of 19 tracks were deemed unsafe for trains to run.
Initially, the shutdown was only for the northwest leg of the system where the damage was found to be particularly bad. However, two days later the entire system was shut down.
Since then, The Baltimore Sun has revealed through an MTA inspection report that the rails were unsafe as early as November 2016.
The Metro saw roughly 40,000 commuters a day, including many Hopkins affiliates. One of the most popular subway routes ran between Owings Mills and the med campus.
The state government has allocated $2.2 million in emergency funding in order to provide free buses for those affected by the Metro’s shutdown. These buses run from 5 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and 6 a.m. to midnight on weekends.
However, commuters say that the buses are inefficient and take significantly more time than taking the metro.
Baltimore resident Velma Pack said that it can take her up to three hours to get home from work using the bus system.
“The local bus stops at every stop that the Metro would have stopped at,” Pack said. “It doesn’t wait for someone to come aboard or discharge. It just sits.”
She noted that riding the bus has its own benefits.
“The good news is that the seats are usually comfortable,” Pack said. “The bus is relatively clean compared to the train. The drivers are polite.”
Other Baltimore residents like David Hernandez have turned to transportation services such as Uber. Though he tried to use less expensive services such as the Charm City Circulator, he found them less accessible.
“We’re waiting for what we think is the Circulator,” Hernandez said. “There used to be a sign right up here, and we don’t see the sign anymore. I’m tempted to get another Uber.”
Baltimore resident Monica Sullivan works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and has relied on the Metro to commute since 2005. She said that the subway system in Baltimore has always been unreliable and that Hopkins should offer Baltimore residents an alternative solution.
“[The Metro’s] never been... great. Not even subpar,” Sullivan said. “It’s pretty poor, and I wish Hopkins would get something that would help shuttle employees... this is just the cherry on top of the sundae. I don’t know what could get worse.”
Sullivan was also frustrated with the way the state government has handled transportation in Maryland in general.
“I’d like for Maryland to take a page out of Philadelphia or New Jersey or New York or somebody else’s book on how to run a subway,” she said.
Many residents, such as Tenise Shakes, were frustrated by the short notice they were given to prepare for the delay.
“They didn’t allow us to plan,” Shakes said. “On our ride to the subway station there was a sign at the subway station saying this station was closed. I thought maybe the next station was open. So I went to the next station and that was closed and at that station there was a personnel that said the entire subway is closed.”
Baltimore resident Donnell Williams said the lack of notice almost caused him to miss a day of work.
“If I want to keep my job I have to be ready for the change,” Williams said. “They could have given us a better notice time without us just finding out that morning.
While the Metro is set to reopen in March, it is expected to close again in August 2018 to repair worn tracks.
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