Chances are, unless you’re from a major city, you’re not very familiar with public transportation. America is famously car-centric, with limited infrastructure to support or expand alternative transit options. Growing up in lovely New Jersey, I too had minimal experience with public transportation, but after moving to Baltimore, I’ve learned to navigate and appreciate it. Whether you’re heading out of Homewood to pursue advanced work, or to let loose and have fun in the city, we Hopkins students are afforded a breadth of opportunities and access to a vast network of buses and trains.
The easiest and most reliable bus available from campus is popularly known as the JHMI shuttle (A.K.A, the “Jimmy”). It makes an “L”-shaped route from Homewood, then Baltimore Penn Station, Peabody and, lastly, the hospital. The JHMI stops at the old Barnes & Noble (now the Johns Hopkins Bookstore) every 30 minutes, and often more frequently during peak hours. While most students use it to commute to the hospital for classes and research, it’s also a great way to reach Mount Vernon — a neighborhood home to some of the best restaurants and cafés in Baltimore. Paired with TransLoc, the bus-tracking app, you can easily anticipate the JHMI at any stop from anywhere, making the JHMI a reliable way to move between Hopkins campuses.
Besides the JHMI, you want to familiarize yourself with public city buses, which also stop close to campus. The Charm City Circulator is a free service that connects you to popular downtown locations, such as Inner Harbor, Federal Hill and Fells Point. The CityLink bus routes can take you to a greater number of places outside of the downtown area but incur a $2 fare, which you can purchase using the CharmPass app. Both services have online trackers (here are links to the CityLink and Circulator ones, respectively), although in my opinion, the city buses are more susceptible to delays and less predictable.
A key stop on these bus routes is Baltimore Penn Station. From here, you unlock potential to visit other cities along the Eastern seaboard, such as Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston to the north, and DC to the south. If you’re tenacious, you could even take the 24+ hour trip to Miami on Amtrak’s Silver Meteor line. For me, the value of comfy passenger trains lies in the ability to make a monthly trek back home, watching the passing scenery or K-dramas instead of getting carsick. But for other purposes and East Coast non-natives, the MARC train to DC requires just $9 and a whim to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Don’t stay out too late though — inter-city transit options drop off quickly past dark. After a Laufey concert at The Anthem in D.C. last year, one of my best friends and I were trying to make our way back to Baltimore. However, both Amtrak and MARC services ended before the concert was over and did not restart until the morning. Anticipating that we might be stranded, I booked us tickets for a Greyhound. While we eventually made it back to our dorms, we didn’t feel particularly safe at the Union Station bus station or on the bus itself, especially as girls traveling alone at night. Rideshare services like Lyft and Uber are an option, but the chances that a driver would want to go all the way to Baltimore and back at such a late hour are slim. The best-case scenario? Carpool with a friend.
Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive guide to public transportation in Baltimore. For one, I have not yet braved Baltimore’s Light Rail system, which has a mixed reputation (check out this video, “Light Rail Doesn't Work in Baltimore,” by Phriendly Photog on this topic if you’re interested in learning more). Another honorable mention is the colored Blue Jay shuttle routes that circulate Remington, Hampden and Waverly, whose services will hopefully grow more robust with greater demand.
For now, I urge you all to capitalize on your time in Baltimore — a city with a rich history and vibrant culture, brimming with potential. Catch a bus to Peabody, or a train to a new city. Get to know this place and its people outside of the “Hopkins bubble.” You will become more worldly and all the better for it.
Amy Xu is a junior majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from West Windsor, N.J.
