Deplorable. Where are buses to provide a workaround when the Snail Rail system is disabled. These kinds of all-too-often happenstances turn off more mass transit customers than any other message. MTA, you had a chance to shine and WIN customers and you blow it!

This report from a friend of mine in the neighborhood: "An amusing aside? Around 3pm yesterday, I was at Hamburg Street Light Rail Station when a fully laden train disgorged its passengers most of whom promptly headed towards the M & T Stadium and then the surprise! Yes, the exit gates on the stadium side were closed - only in Baltimore!!!"

It doesn't work at big events because it's light rail.

It's not so much that AS light rail, the system was done on the cheap, it is that light rail itself is on the cheap. Non-level boarding, headway constraints, and consist length constraints all contribute to failures of normal operations during very large event scenarios.

I wonder if it is the same NIMBY's that a few decades ago prevented more capable heavy rail from entering their suburbs complaining today about the system that had to be built on the cheap and can't handle large events.

One of the biggest let downs is the fact the Red Line will be built to be incompatible and disconnected from the current line, so that rolling stock could not be transferred for use during large events (and vice versa).

We just don't learn.

Luckily for me since I live in Pigtown, I only had to endure a quick ten minute walk home :)

If said this time and again, one of the major issues is the timing on the line along Howard Street. It doesn't let the trains move, rather they crawl.

A good idea with the red line is after it is built, spend a few more million dollars and make a spur that connects the red line with the light rail by way of a tunnel from camden yards. that would allow a connection for equipment, and a one seat ride to closer to the harbor.

Anybody who still thinks light rail is good way to get to/from large events like this should have their head examined. Why the MTA even bothers to advertise it as a valid alternative is beyond me (I guess they have marketing dollars they need to burn through).

It just cannot handle crowds of this size. Never has, never will.

Maybe if they had a spur track at the stadiums, from which they could have multiple trains waiting to be dispatched in both directions, then service might approach satisfactory. The fact that huge crowds in the middle of the system are dependent on trains being dispatched from the northern and southern reaches of the system is just plain inefficient.

Completely unacceptable. We waited for an hour at BWI for the train to take us to the concert. The train was suppose to be every 20 minutes but there was NO communication about when the next one would come or why it was slow. For a big city, this place has no clue how to deal with big crowds.

Spare trains and temporary drivers are needed to handle emergency or infrequent situations such as those. Rutgers University, for example, increases its bus service for football games (and it is still slow because of all the automobile traffic).

Another complaint: I tried parking at the Falls Road stop, and 5 spots were taken up by construction vehicles that had been left there for the night. Why were these construction vehicles allowed to park in the lot overnight when the MTA knew that there was a concert that night that would be drawing Light Rail customers and every spot in the lot would be needed by light rail customers? Because of this and the awful traffic in the Mt Washington area, I wound up having to drive downtown to the concert. Outside of the $20 parking garage fee, I did eventually come out on top- I was home in Towson in under an hour.

The point about the Metro has me wondering- why can't the city dig an off-shoot tunnel from the solo line that exists now and have a subway line that surfaces after the North Avenue stop and share the tracks that the Light Rail uses? Or, better yet, why can't the city build surface tracks next to the Light Rail tracks after North Avenue to serve another Metro/subway line? I'm sure the same thing could be done on the south end of town also. I know it costs a lot of money to dig up subway tunnels but when you use one that already exists, and then only have to dig an offshoot tunnel for a couple of miles before the train resurfaces, the cost can't be that overwhelming. The city is desperately in need of another mode of mass transit and light rail and buses aren't cutting it. Doing this would also relieve a lot of the pressure and problems the light rail experiences on nights like Wednesday night. Instead of building a new arena downtown, this is where our tax dollars should be going.

Another suggestion for the Light Rail: they should implement signs that tell you how long until the next train arrives like the DC Metro has. Of course, knowing the MTA, the sign would probably never be accurate.

COMMENT: Let me address some common misconceptions. The city has no role in rail transit systems in the state and only a minor one in bus systems. Transit is mostly a state function. And neither has the money to build subway tunnels on its own. The federal government will pay 50 percent in some cases, but getting approval can take decades -- not years. Surface tracks are less expensive, but you need to have the right of way to build them. The next-train function this writer refers to will likely be installed here someday, but that too is a very expensive upgrade and will have to compete with other transportation priorities for scarce dollars.--MTD

MTD-
Doesn't "right of way" to build extra tracks fall under the government's emminent domain policy? Does the state and county have the power of emminent domain like the federal government does? If this was a federally funded project, would eminent domain apply?

Also, if the state is acquiring the federal money to talk about building the Red Line, which to my understanding will have tunnels that go underneath downtown at certain points, and sounds like it is unwanted by a good portion of city residents, wouldn't it make sense to redirect that federal money into projects that upgrade the currently failing forms of mass transit in the city? As for getting approval, doesn't Mikulski have enough political pull by now to get this pushed through and approved quickly?

I want to go on record saying that I had no problem whatsoever taking the Light Rail to and from the concert.

I also had friends who took the #11 bus without issue. No complaints.