Light rail shutdown points to long-term neglect | READER COMMENTARY

Shutdown strongly suggests that MTA has not kept light rail in proper repair.

It was demoralizing to anyone who uses Baltimore Light RailLink to awaken last Friday morning and find that it is closed indefinitely (“MTA indefinitely suspending light rail services starting Friday,” Dec. 7). Since other regional light rail systems do not falter to a complete halt, it is a safe assumption that previous administrations skimped on its upkeep. Given that the Maryland Transit Administration lacks the wherewithal or motivation to fix the light rail ticket machines, I’m not confident that this more significant design flaw will be corrected expeditiously.

I can also fairly anticipate that this dangerous design flaw will be seized upon by opponents of public transit for the proposition that the whole concept of light rail doesn’t work and that no one will be truly inconvenienced by its absence. Given Maryland’s bad news of a huge deficit in transportation revenue, it is hard to argue that any significant dedicated revenue stream to light rail to keep this from happening again is a worthy public investment. Similarly, an expansion of light rail services such as the Red Line is hard to advertise to beleaguered taxpayers when the entire system takes an unscheduled leave of absence for a protracted period.

It is also dismaying that other forms of local public transit do not exhibit this level of dysfunction. Yet both the Baltimore Metro SubwayLink and MARC commuter rail systems must warrant even more significant maintenance upkeep.

This fiasco demonstrates the folly of the state of Maryland being responsible for Baltimore’s transit. Until or unless there is a regional administration of the light rail, Baltimore will be hamstrung by the state powers that be who obviously have no political motivation to make Baltimore’s public transit commensurate with its status as a big-league city. I wish Gov. Wes Moore would show the same leadership that was demonstrated when he fixed the Maryland 529 program (and added on a nice 10% increase) so that parents like myself actually had funds to spend on college tuition this fall that Gov. Larry Hogan’s outgoing administration couldn’t be bothered with.

Speaking of which, my suggestion is that when (and if) the light rail comes back on line it be free of charge to its faithful remnant of users that survive the Babylonian captivity of bus bridges, bicycling in the bleak midwinter and Uber rides.

— Paul R. Schlitz Jr., Baltimore

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