I'm not surprised. Public transportation typically fails to keep riders and even driver informed about the temporary situations like these.

Once when the light rail was running shuttle buses because Mt. Washington had no service, I waited almost 1.5 hrs at the corner of N. Pkwy and Falls Rd for a the Light Rail Shuttle (the sign clearly indicated that I was at the correct stop).

What was not clearly indicated was that I needed to take a regular MTA bus. No bus number, schedule, or other information could be found on the sign or posted at the bus stop. When I finally asked a bus driver, he explained the process. How would an occasional rider, much less a commuter know this information - by osmosis?

And to add insult to injury the bus didn't go anywhere near Penn Station which was my ultimate destination. The closest I could get dropped off was near the Meyerhoff.

The February '10 snow mounds will melt away before you get any response from the MTA. Even then, don't hold out for a reply from Mr. Wells. The MTA crumbles with any sort of crisis."Bus bridges" are laughable. Neither MTA officials nor drivers communicate with passengers during these system meltdowns. You're on your own bunky!

I was lucky enough to not have to go to work until Monday, when I only needed to take the shuttle bus from Owings Mills to Old Court, but it was still quite the time-consuming adventure. After finally getting to Shot Tower/Market Place, I found that the Shot Tower side was closed, and had to leave the metro station via Market Place, which is totally out of the way, and made my normal 10 minute walk, into a 30 minute nightmare. Not only was there the longer walk to work to contend with, but also snow, ice, and those trucks that were dumping snow into the Harbor. The ride home also took longer, and the wait for the shuttle at Old Court was so long, that they finally took a bus that was headed to Mondawmin, and sitting there for 15 minutes or so, without anyone getting on it to a shuttle that took some very angry passengers to Owings Mills. My normally 35 minute commute took 1 hour and 45 minutes that day. Let me tell you, this afternoon, when I discovered the Metro was "fully operational" I almost did cried for joy.

MTA also owes an apology to all Woodlawn commuters (mostly Federal employees of Social Security and CMS) who were abandoned in their morning commutes yesterday and told to kick rocks when all buses heading that way were halted due to "snow removal."

Why there is snow removal in the middle of rush hour is one question, but why the MTA chose to cancel service instead of reroute buses is another.

Most of us just went home for the day. The MTA does not care about serving people, only buses. We deserve better than this.

Good luck, as soon as I can I'm moving to a city whose transit values its customers.

This morning was no different. After waiting for a bus that never arrived (thanks MTA!) I got to the State Center metro stop at 7:30 and waited...and waited...and waited. It was 7:50 when an announcement was made that they were experiencing "minor" delays in both directions. Oh, but they apologized for any inconvenience, which was nice. What was not nice was seeing two trains heading out to Old Court go by and continuing to wait. About 8:05 another announcement about the "minor" delays.

They apologized again! How nice! And they did me the favor of not offering any explanation so I wouldn't need to worry about anything as I watched another hour of my life creep by waiting for a Baltimore metro train.

Finally a train for Hopkins arrives about 8:10 (that would a 40 minute "minor" delay) totally packed. I jammed in and got to work. I'm sure my boss will be OK when I tell them the delay was "minor" according to MTA. I plan on apologizing for any inconvenience this might have caused and thank him for employing me. I'm sure that'll smooth things over.

What were the delays? Who knows? They don't tell you so there's no way to know if it's worth waiting around or just throwing yourself on the third rail and ending your misery once and for all.

I'm not sure how MTA is going to handle another line (i.e. the Red Line) when and if it ever opens because the current state of Baltimore public transit is already laughable. If you can't keep a "network" of one subway and one light rail line running, how in the world will you be able to keep TWO subway lines and a light rail line on time?

I completely sympathize with Mr. Todesco. Last night, I checked the MTA website and was informed that service had been restored all the way to Owings Mills and would run a normal schedule. Then, I arrived at the Lexington Market metro station at 9:55 PM. There were a large number of people in the station waiting for the train, so I assumed one would be along shortly. About 25 minutes later--shortly after 10:20 PM--an Owings Mills bound train finally arrived.

We boarded and made our way slowly west. After reaching Mondawmin, we were informed there would be a "short" wait. By this time, I estimate it is 10:30; we didn't move for about 15 minutes. Eventually, we get to Rogers Avenue at about 10:50. There, we are told there will be a "10 minute" wait. Twenty minutes later, the crowds are getting restless. At this point, the train operator angrily comes over the intercom and informs us that she has no new infomation because "they" haven't told her anything. Shortly thereafter, an eastbound train arrives and we begin moving again, switching tracks just north of Rogers Station. Eventually, I arrive at Old Court at 11:23 PM, a mere 88 minutes after starting my metro experience.

From this sequence of events, it seems clear that Metro was not operating a normal schedule and was instead single tracking. Setting aside the fact that they have had six full days to clear the tracks, it is inexcusable for them to call this "normal service," and even more unfathomable that they cannot keep their train operators informed about service status.

Similarly, it seems that service is still single tracking this morning, yet the website message remains unchanged. I can attest that an already angry and fed up customer base moves closer revolt with each mysterious delay. The solution is simple: plow the tracks, and inform your riders with timely and accurate information. I can't even count how many times I have signed up for email alerts regarding metro service disruptions. I can, however, tell you how many times I have received an alert: zero. I don't know how MTA plans to address its communication failures, but I look forward to their public explanation about what went wrong, and how they plan to prevent it from happening again.

This all sounds very familiar.

As of this morning, the MTA website said everything was running normally on the subway. But when I got to the Owings Mills station, they told us it would be a half hour until the next train.

To their credit, the MTA had Michael Davis, deputy administrator for the transit operations division, there to talk to people. He said that to clear the tracks, they have to push the snow to the side. The problem they're now dealing with is that the snow keeps falling back on the tracks. I have to imagine there's a better way.

Several people complained that the website didn't reflect the delays. Mr. Davis did call in and ask that the website be updated. I just checked and it's been updated to say that the trains are running every 30 minutes, due to single tracking between Owings Mills and Reisterstown Road Plaza.

I'm dreading my commute back home.

I arrived at the Ownings Mills station this morning at about 6:20am, to find a train there waiting, but "Not in Service". We were told there would be a minor delay. After 20 minutes, we were told we could take a shuttle to Reisterstown, and get on the subway there, but decided to wait for the subway, which we were promised was on its way. It wasn't until 7am that the subway actually showed up, and it was a slow ride to Reisterstown. Oddly enough, I saw some people get on at Reisterstwon that were waiting ot Owings Mills with me, but decided to the the "handy" shuttle bus to Reisterstown. All along the way to Shot Tower is was slow going, jammed packed, and I could hear an announcement at each stop about "short delays." I too, am looking forward to tonights ride, and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

MTA Communications? What do they mean by 40% of Bus lines operating? If they looked at number of times all stops were served, I would be surprised if there was 10% of normal service. Took me 1 hour 45 minutes from Glen neighborhood to University Hospital via #44 and metro and 2 hours return on 2/9. Light rail "service" was a joke between North Ave. and Camden Station. Is there another design problem with tracks and snow?

I've had similar problems on the 14 line. Thursday night I took a cab home after waiting for over an hour for a southbound bus. I was at the stop at Ritchie Hwy and Ordnance Rd at 9:00. Should have been busses at 9:15 and 10:15. I gave up at 10:20 and called a cab. Friday night my wife was stranded at Patapsco station for over 2 hours and from what I've heard from a neighbor the bus I got at 8:15 was the last southbound til 11:30. To make things worse a run that should have taken 40-45 minutes between Patapsco station and Americana circle took 30 minutes on wet and potentially icy roads.

The weekend and yesterday weren't much better. Sunday morning the first bus was 40 minutes late. Yesterday the bus from Jumpers Hole loop that should have left at 7:33 AM left early and arrived at Americana circle at 7:33. Due to the bus showing early I had to wait for the next bus. ( not that big a deal as I was still on time for work but a symptom of the bigger problems)

I've complained via both phone and web form for months about the ongoing problems on the 14 line and despite repeated assurances that I would receive replies to my inquiries I've gotten one direct reply and one via Senator Simonaire's office.

It is beyond my understanding what was going on with the Metro Subway the night of Tuesday, February 16, and the website was not informative at all about the situation. But from my end, I got out of my grad school class at 10:15 last night and made my way to State Center to catch the subway home. Tired after a very long day, I was eager to get home and rest; however, to my utter disgust and disappointment, I, along with dozens other customers, waited nearly an hour for a train! To add insult to injury, we were held indefinitely at the Roger's Avenue Station with the doors open and below freezing temperatures. Needless to say, this has been the absolute worst encounter I've had with MTA and this severe inconvenience comes at a very inopportune time as I am experiencing difficulties with my vehicle and have been depending on the Metro Subway and MARC train to get me from Owings Mills to DC for work. It would be great to understand what the problem was last night and how it could be prevented. The website was very unreliable as it said the Metro Subway was operating on schedule.

Similar scenario this morning. I figured operations would have returned to normal with the rush hour crowds. On a regular day, I take the 6:55 am Metro from Owings Mills to State Center and head to Penn Station to board the MARC to go to work in DC. This morning, thinking I was doing myself a favor by, I left home early to catch the 6:47 train to allow me a little more time to walk to Penn Station from State Center. When I got to the Owings Mills Station, the platform was full of people, many of whom had been waiting since before 6:00 for a train. When a train finally arrived (at around 7:00) and took off, it moved ever so slowly, and made random stops throughout the entire ride. Needless to say, I ended up missing my MARC train, and in order to make it to work on time, I had to purchase a regular Amtrak ticket. Once again, the website stated this morning that the Metro Subway was operating on time.

I'm a bit disappointed that a public transit system that is already strides behind other systems in the country would have such inconsistencies with its service. DC's WMATA, of course operates five lines (which are each above ground and underground), and they didn't have any issues like this today or yesterday. Why it's so hard for MTA Maryland to keep up its single-line Metro system is beyond me! I just hope these problems do not persist any longer as they have cost me both time and extra money.

I just spoke with a co-worker who also rides the subway. This morning, a subway employee told him that the delays are due to a pre-existing mechanical issue that happened before the snow and are not due to the snow.

wouldn't it be nice if the sun was looking into the transit disasters of the past two weeks? All of these stories about the cars but nothing about the buses or trains. How about a reporter actually stepping on a form of mass transit and reporting about it?

Transit is more than just something you look at from a car.