MTA adds new Quickbus route this month
The Maryland Transit Administration will add a new express bus route between the downtown University of Maryland Transit Center and Towson as part of a series of changes it will make in its fall schedule.
The new No. 48 Quickbus will provide limited-stop service along the current route of the No. 8 bus line, one of the system's busiest. The new route, which will replace the express runs of the No. 8 line, is modeled on the crosstown No. 40 Quickbus service begun several years ago.
Weekday service on the 48 will run every 15 minutes between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. on the Greenmount Avenue-York Road corridor. On Saturdays, service will begin at 7 a.m. and continue until 7 p.m. The line will not operate on Sundays, when the route will be served by the No. 8.
Other changes in the fall schedule, which will go into effect Aug. 30, include new schedules of Routes No. 3, 4, 16, 20, 21, 27, 29, 36, 48, 51 and 150. The current M1, M2 and M6 routes will be redesignated the No. 52, No. 53 and No. 57 respectively. The M17 route is being eliminated, with service between the Owings Mills Metro Station and Red Land Court being switched to the No. 59 route.
On the No. 17 route to Anne Arundel County, service to the Airport 100 Business Park and the State Employees Credit Union headquarters will be eliminated. Some runs will terminate at Arundel Mills, others at Parkway Center.
Other changes will occur on Routes No. 7, 8, 14, 15, 24, 33, 35 and 48 routes.
Comments
This is a good place for a quickbus. Maybe it can attract more student riders and replace the collegetown shuttle.
Posted by: Greg | August 18, 2009 2:14 PM
Mike, a good question you might want to address to the MTA folks is whether the QB 48 will be signed the same as the QB 40, with the tall kiosks at each station.
You may also want to ask whatever happened to the Next Bus Arrival system that was supposed to be on the QuickBus. Everytime I pass the Shot Tower station its not working.
Posted by: chris | August 18, 2009 2:52 PM
The Quick Bus is a great idea. One of the most frustrating things about the Baltimore bus system is the ludricous idea of having a stop virtually on every block. It takes almost an hour to get from Catonsville downtown on the #10 because of the ridiculous number of bus stops.
To speed up bus service, stops should be limited to every so many blocks, and of course at transfer points and high density employment sites.
I would like to suggest another Quick Bus route: from Canton to Lutherville light rail station, with stops on the north side stretch to be limited as follows:
After Charles-North, then:
Johns Hopkins University/Union Memorial Hospital (basically 33rd Street between Charles and St. Paul),
East Cold Spring Lane/Loyola College/Notre Dame (at York Road & E. Cold Spring Lane),
Towson University/Greater Baltimore Medical Center (on York Road at either Saint Joseph Hospital Road or at Cross Campus Drive),
Towson stop at the downtown Towson circle, York Road & Joppa Road,
Towson Beltway stop, and then Lutherville station.
Posted by: Herx | August 20, 2009 1:45 AM
I'm going to yawn at this. While the MTA upped service on an already serviced route (downtown to Towson, serviced by the Number 8, the 3, the 55, the 11 and the 104) they cut back on service to other places.
The result? now instead of walking a half mile to a bus stop, I have to walk a mile.
MTA is not helping their customers. Even their reporting of changes is lacking. The new changes were supposed to be posted on August 10. The worker at the metro subway line did not receive the schedule change update brochures until August 19.
Hearings for my route changes were not publicly announced (via bus posters) until THREE days AFTER the last meeting. How are riders supposed to get their voices heard?
I've complained numerous times, leaving contact information and insisting that they post it with their service as "requiring a response" and absolutely NO responses from MTA have come back to me.
Their online complaint form is even worse. There is no guarantee they are even seeing these complaints at all.
Sincerely,
Disgruntled Rider
Posted by: Amy | August 20, 2009 10:56 PM