Light rail riders: Satisfied with MTA answers?
Last Saturday, on the busy day in the middle of Artscape weekend, several light rail riders reported that they stood at various station for periods of 45 minutes to an hour without seeing a train headed downtown and without being informed by the Maryland Transit Administration of problems on the line.
To which Maryland Transit Administration spokesman Terry Owens insisted the agency did use its P.A. system, such as it is, to inform light rail riders of those problems. Today, after receiving requests for details of how the MTA attempted to communicate Saturday, Owens sent this statement:
As for last Saturday, I can tell you that we moved over 14,000 people on light rail and another 8,000 people Sunday. On a daily basis more than 28,000 people use the service. We move 350,000 people every weekday on all our modes. We’re one of the largest transit agencies in the country. Are we perfect? No we are not. Do we strive daily to improve the service? Yes we do. We had some service disruptions Saturday and we responded. How do we plan to do a better job of informing customers when there is a problem on Light Rail? We are investing in a new PA system for Light Rail and our Metro Subway operation. In the meantime we are continuing to make improvements internally that will result in improved service on the street.
Light rail users, are you satisfied with that answer? Or should I keep pressing the MTA for details of what went wrong?
Comments
I don't use light rail daily, but I do use it once in a while and even I've seen issues with communication.
A week ago Monday there was some disruption due to a storm. Since my mom was visiting, our plan was for me to ride down to the airport with her and then light rail back to my home in Federal Hill. The trains were late, there were tired people who had been working all day (unlike me) wanting to get the hell home, and no announcement at all.
In addition to the PA if there's a noticeable service interruption, say more than 15 minutes, a notice needs to be put on the MTA's voice mail. The number appears on all ticket machines, but I called and nada. It needs to be someone's responsibility to do this, and it needs to be done during all service hours, not just MTA office service hours.
I've also seen disruptions that completely stopped service for some trains, such as car accidents on the tracks, and the MTA officials such as fare inspectors and drivers were completely in the dark about what the problem was, what was being done to resolve it, and how long it would take. They need clear line of sight from officials to riders when problems occur, and they're not even close to having that.
Posted by: Jon Parker | July 22, 2010 4:12 PM
Keep pressing. It is Owens' job to say those things. One thing I'd like to know is why it takes them so long to change drivers? I don't have a problem with them changing drivers, but why does it take so long to do so? It doesn't matter if it is Monday at 7:40am or 10:45pm on Friday night of Artscape. It seems like the new driver is never down waiting for the train. I can't believe they don't know when the train is coming. This just seems to be a lack of professionalism and a slap in the face to all who ride light rail.
Seems like an easy to resolve but they don't. Why?
Posted by: dlyford | July 22, 2010 4:37 PM
My question is why do they have to switch drivers at North? Granted its where one of the maintenance facilities is located, but it's in the middle of the line. It would seem more effective to switch drivers at the ends of the lines; Hunt Valley, BWI, and Cromwell. The train has to stop to have the driver switch ends anyway, so it would make sense to change shift at those stops.
This seems obvious, but then again when has the MTA every taken that route?
Posted by: Chris | July 22, 2010 6:28 PM
The driver switch at the North Ave HQ is annoying, but I prefer that to paying the next operator to ride to the end of the line, and paying the one coming off shift to ride all the way back.
Posted by: James | July 22, 2010 8:37 PM
I was waiting for the light rail at the Woodberry stop for a hour to get to Artscape. We never got any information on what the delay was until about a minute before the train showed up when a northbound driver informed us what was happening. By this time, the station was packed and I was surprised I was able to get on.
Posted by: Jimmy | August 2, 2010 10:55 AM