> What happened??

The option to work from home.

I commute with the Metro at least 3 days a week, I think it's a couple of things:

• Fewer people paying for tickets due to the App (there's pretty much always a gate open, and there's not always an attendant, so it becomes a challenge to even prove that you're a rider that day). This is especially true for Student passes, their tickets are already paid for so there's no reason to even attempt to show the attendant, just go through the open gate. Daily ticketing on the app is really just awful btw, if you use the metro, get a Charm Card and ignore the app.

• Better Bus routes have made some of the metro transfers obsolete

• More people working from home so there are less people commuting to T-Rowe/Hopkins Hospital

• The number of Bus Bridges, Single Tracking Days, Brake Fires, etc. is insane. It's a toss-up when trains will leave, and how long the ride will be. It can be anywhere from 28 minutes to 1:20 end to end. I have a flexible job so it doesn't matter when I get in, but if you are on a strict schedule, I don't see how the Metro is a viable option.

Another pet peeve: Why don't the underground stations have 5g (or any service) towers yet? If I'm waiting an extra 10 minutes for a delayed train, it would be nice to check some emails or browse reddit or something.

I don’t buy it. The Baltimore Metro is the only heavy rail subway in the country to see an overall drop in ridership through the first half of 2022. Philly’s SEPTA subway saw a 37% increase over the same period. Chicago’s CTA subway and Elevated lines saw a 60% increase. There’s no way to see Baltimore’s subway as anything but an outlier.

I know all workplaces and individuals are different, but I invested in my at home workspace and haven't been into the office since 2020.

I've taken the metro twice in the last 2 years. Both times I arrived 5 minutes before a train was supposedly arriving, and had to wait literally 45 minutes for the train to actually show, and the smell in the station was truly something else. Don't know if it was like that in the early 2010s, but I can see why people would try not to use it now

MTA Data shows major ridership decreases across the board compared to 2019 pre-covid numbers. As of July, it was 63% of 2019 ridership. For the Subway specifically, it took a major hit "Metro Subway ridership standing at 612,000 in February 2020, compared to 122,000 in February 2022.": https://thedailyrecord.com/2022/07/08/mta-ridership-numbers-still-struggling-to-return-to-pre-pandemic-levels/

At least in the near term, remote work is here to stay. I doubt these numbers recover to 2019 levels for at least a decade, if ever. It's crazy to me the MTA are talking about new light rail lines when there may not be any ridership to support the investment over existing bus lines. There's no way the projected ridership models from the North-South Corridor study are even close to accurate post-COVID: https://rtpcorridors.com/northsouth/alternatives

The link to APTA transit statistics for anyone interested- https://www.apta.com/research-technical-resources/transit-statistics/ridership-report/ridership-report-archives/

In my experience as a young woman, once ridership dropped off, it was a bit of a domino effect for a casual rider like myself. I don’t think twice about taking public transit in other cities at all with bustling, robust systems but it’s been five years since I’ve “considered metro”… it feels far too risky to take a train and chance being in a mostly empty car by myself or with another female friend.

This isn't the norm, even with late/canceled trains there are usually only 15-20 minute headways.

I've also never been in an unclean station, which one was it?

This!! And if I know one way (to or from) it will be dark I find an alternative mode of transit.

State employees ride for free and are therefore probably a significant portion of ridership. And I suspect that they are also among the last to return in full force to the workplace.

> More people working from home so there are less people commuting to T-Rowe/Hopkins Hospital

I wonder how much of this is also the hollowing-out of jobs in the old downtown - a lot of companies have relocated to Harbor East in the last few years, which the subway doesn't serve. Given that the subway is so poorly integrated with the rest of the city's transit system, it would make sense that if commuters vanish due to relocations + WFH, so does most of the line's ridership.

Good to know, thanks! The stations I used between going in and out were State Center, Penn North, and Mondawmin - can't remember which was the really bad one

Shot tower to Harbor East isn't too bad given the rest of Baltimore's transit. I could be wrong, but I think a significant number of Harbor East workers just live in the area.

State center had a huge number of riders pre-2020.

I would imagine that for someone choosing between transit and driving, a mandatory transfer from subway to bus is going to push them towards driving instead of transit.

Given Harbor East's better location for car commuting at the end of the JFX, its (presumed - I don't actually know) better parking situation, and the fact that most commuters are no longer in the office five days a week, I would think that people that would have taken the subway when they were downtown five days a week will prefer to drive than subway + bus if they only have to be in Harbor East two days a week.

Fair point about more people living near Harbor East, though - why take the subway when you could walk? I'd love to see a more thorough analysis of where and how commuters move around the city.

For county commuters by the time you get to Owings Mills you're cruising along then you have to get off the exit, park and then walk all the way to the trains and wait, by that time if you were driving your half way down the beltway. Not to mention sitting in a train with some sketchy characters because of where the train line runs. Less traffic on the roadways too so I think people realize you can drive by yourself and park in the city much faster than relying on the subway. There really aren't that many 'great' stops and obviously no transfers to other subway lines, it's just a poor system with no real benefit.

The Subway used to be quick and reliable, even if it had a limited service area (Last time I regularly used it was 2012-2016).

It’s worth noting that the ridership numbers begin to slide when Hogan became governor. MTA is a state agency and decisions are really made in Annapolis. Does anyone think his willful devaluing of mass transit in Baltimore has something to do with this slide? Remember, no other subway line in the country has seen this level of constant decline. It can’t just be COVID or working from home. It has to be something more.

Baltimore has a large number of state, local, and federal employees. A large majority of which are now remote. Even other private companies have moved to remote. I haven’t used the light rail since March 2020 and I absolutely would not do it again because ridership is so low it’s too risky as a woman to ride alone. Especially with no people around.

It’s mostly Covid. Covid reduced ridership so much that it became exponentially less safe to ride public transit. Driving is safer on a day to day basis. There used to be safety in numbers, especially during rush hour.

Prior to Covid I worked in Harbor East and I knew at least a few of my colleagues who took the subway and got off at shot tower… anecdotal I know but I think a lot of what we’re seeing is effects of the pandemic

I get what you’re saying. I think there is a threshold of ridership that can be used to justify transit but I don’t think that it’s the only thing that should be used to justify transit — whether keeping existing or building new infrastructure

Not everyone has a car, so that option isn't available to everyone. I think what the above poster was saying is that for people who take Metro, it's pretty easy to get to Harbor East on foot. But also, perhaps there are fewer people taking any mass transit to Harbor East because they may now live in the area.

DC likely has more remote workers than we do though

Unfortunately this is what happens when cities build commuter lines disguised as a subway. Nobody uses that thing for anything other than commuting, which nowadays there is much less of.

DC has a subway system, Baltimore has a subway line. I feel like most of the people who can't understand the difference have never really used the Baltimore subway--which is great for what it is, but also goes to very few places most people need to get to.

Yes, I understand that. My point is that talking about government employees seems odd given that I can’t imagine other cities like NY and Chicago don’t have similar numbers of public employment, and that DC is probably leagues ahead of us in that realm. I don’t think that’s why the subway here is dying

Hmm that’s strange. I’ve only ridden the subway a few times and all within the last year just for fun - but the one thing it had going for it was that the station and cars were both immaculate. Of course, that was largely because so few people were riding lol…

I’ve lived here almost my entire life, and minus a couple times going to DC, I’ve never used the metro. And I don’t know anyone my age who has either. (I’m 22 for context)

I dunno anything about Cleveland’s system but based on my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the system in Baltimore, it’s not even directly connected to Penn Station. Like, I get frustrated with the fact that Union Station in DC is only on the Red Line but I can at least expect to be in Union Station when I get off the train. Every time I’m in Baltimore, there doesn’t feel like a good reason to even casually use the subway compared to even the light rail. When driving, walking or taking the bus will be more efficient for what I need.

It's not so much that Baltimore has such a large percentage of public employees, but rather that so much of our subway's pre-pandemic usage was specifically about commuting, whether to Hopkins or Charles Center or State Center or Owings Mills.

The thing about DC or Chicago or NYC is that the subway's something you take to get around the city that also takes you to work. Ours was only ever really built for the second part, and without that you're basically left with a train that connects Lexington Market to parts of East and NW Baltimore.

Driving is actually much more dangerous, especially as people have been speeding more and more.

I'm not fundamentally opposed to transit and have lived in other cities with better options so I understand the value proposition. My issue is to be financially worth it you'd need to have more ridership than could be realistically served by running frequent bus service to that area and/or a significant decrease in ridership time. For the ridership numbers, the models are generous in terms of projections vs reality to try to get federal funding. The current models for the central MD transit plan were created pre-covid as far as I can tell. There's no reality where they will come anywhere close unless the state of MD bans all car traffic or the remote work trend dies off overnight.

Regarding ridership time, looking at the North/South alternatives, the projected decrease in "transit ridership time" is a max of 14 minutes between Towson & Downtown. The MTA shared in public meetings they already eliminated the heavy rail choice as too expensive/least projected ridership so that 14 minute savings is out. The next best is 11 minutes for partially mixed traffic light rail. The current time to get between Towson Town Center & Light/Pratt on the Red Bus Line is 45 minutes. The best light rail option would bring it down to a projected 34 minutes. This is before traffic studies are done and as we've seen with mixed traffic in the current light rail, I'm skeptical it'll work even that well. To make that same trip in a car is 20 minutes. You're not enticing new ridership with those kinds of numbers. Projected ridership times mentioned can be found on the 3rd row here: https://rtpcorridors.com/images/ns-documents/RTP_North-South_Corridor_Study_MOEs_2022-08-31.pdf

My two cents is the MTA need to take a step back and look at why all their other Baltimore transit lines struggle. Even pre-COVID, the light rail stops are in the middle of nowhere and do not save time due to being in mixed traffic so you get the worst of limited local ridership and limited commuter ridership. Penn Station isn't connected to any of the job centers, so the MARC train doesn't get used as a commuter rail coming from north/northeast of the city. As we're discussing in this thread, the subway has it's own problems with ridership.

In light of the uncertainty around what the working landscape looks now and into the future, IMO it'd be best to focus on testing options like BRT in the most dense city bus lines before taking on prestige projects. Prove out line concepts in the lowest cost & flexible option before taking on major investments based off faulty modeling. Expand those line out to further & less dense areas on the edge of the city as they start working in the core. If the goal is to look at suburban access to the city core to get cars off the road, they should be looking at commuter rail lines such as the MARC which go further out and have limited stops but actually connect them to downtown. The current north/south transit plan looks like more of the same mixed traffic light rail setup that hasn't worked.

Cars are occassionally not immaculate, particularly in the winter when there are some homeless riding around just to stay warm. But they're usually cleaner than DC's. The most common annoyance is the amount of people who smoke cigarettes while in the cars.

Stations on the other hand are spotless, and they feature some nice art installations or murals.

From an accident perspective yes. I avoid downtown as much as possible these days and drive very defensively. From a crime perspective the car gives you added protection. You’re better off locked in your car than standing alone waiting for public transportation.

DC also has a lot more people living there for schools/work and has a lot of tourism.

This severe drop in ridership is another reason not to bother with the Red Line. Will anybody use it, since it sounds like what is already there isn't being used much.

Same goes for the light rail. Seems like everyday there is a massive delay, bus bridge, or single tracking. Until transit is reliable people won't use it over driving.

Yeah def Hogan, I hope things will turn around for public transit in Baltimore and Maryland statewide with new leadership coming

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Of course it is! Doesn’t feel safe, and there’s no real push to make it better. It’s just there. Decaying.

I moved here last year and live close to the Broadway station. I can't get over how few people ride the Metro. The app/pass thing has never worked for me and the gate is always just open. But I really dig it. I hope it's not dying because - coming from a city of similar size and no rail - the Metro is a great asset.

There is a Metro subway in Baltimore?!

Yeah it's only on the Red Line but the other lines are only a few stops away and you can go in any direction you wish. Deep into Virginia and Maryland.

Whereas Baltimore's Metro has a paltry 14 stops that don't go anywhere I want to go.

Why don't you think it feels safe? I personally haven't ever felt like it's less safe than other cities' systems

I’ve lived here for 10 years and have never seen it

Phase 2 was supposed to connect to the Penn Line at a new station in Madison Square , along with continuing to Morgan State University and out to White Marsh.

I’m 34, lived around Baltimore my entire life and lived in the city proper for the last 13 years. I’ve never been on the Baltimore metro. I’ve never even been in a situation where I was considering it.

The Metro unfortunately is 1/6th of the metro it was supposed to interface with, so while it is fast at getting you from Owings Mills to JHH, there are simply not that many people with both starts AND origins on that line.

This wasn’t enough critical mass to anchor employment in our traditional downtown.

If we extend add another line, then you add all the people with starts but no ends, and ends on no starts along the current alignment to start using it.

The light rail just has one of the worst conceivable alignments you could make in the city so it didn’t add much. But we could also allow development at some of the those sites and improve things.

About half the stations are just unused parking lots on the subway too, so developing those areas is some low-hanging fruit that we are taking very slowly

It’s actually not as clear cut. Cars are targets for carjacking, and people will assume you have $ if you’re getting out of a nice car. In Baltimore the perception is, if you’re taking public transit, you’re probably poor.

I know, right? I'd only learned it existed in like 2019. I rode it once.

I grew up in Harford county and went into the city a lot. Didn’t know we even had an underground subway until I moved to west Baltimore county.

My thoughts exactly. I knew it existed somewhere but it’s nowhere I need to be, so I drive.

Maybe in 15-20 years we’ll have the red line 🤷🏻‍♂️ not holding my breath though because in 15-20 years we’ll probably also have self driving cars available as a subscription service for about the same price.

How many of Hogan's housing developments are in the county? I bet none of them are near public transit and therefore not beneficial to his pocket. It's been interesting to watch the multiple highway improvements initiated near his properties.

And yet, in a city of the same size as the one I came from, even this 1/6th is orders of magnitude better than no non-surface mass transit at all. I read about the original "W" concept for the Metro (along with the move from a robust rail system to buses thanks largely to GM's anti-trust violations).

I really wish that W idea or some variation would/had come to fruition. Along with the Red Line - and the obvious need for transit-based development - it seems like it would be a big help.

THIS. Also, for the realistic amount of time it would take to implement the light rail project vs. BRT current transit riders would literally just have to give up and not have a functioning system for at least the next 10 years ,and then after a decade we'd get one MAYBE two light rail lines...

I started typing up a comment about how I only ever used it to ride down to the National Mall in DC from Silver Spring, but then realized the DC metro and Baltimore metro aren't linked. I've ridden the Baltimore metro once or twice when I was a kid going downtown to see an O's game, but I don't even do that anymore. They've somehow managed to make parking in the city less of a hassle than taking the metro and that's incredibly disappointing.

I had that same thought, then I looked it up and realized the DC metro is wholely seperate from the Baltimore metro. It would be great if I could just hop on a train in Baltimore and ride down to the capital but the closest station to DC is probably Greenmount.

>the DC metro and Baltimore metro aren't linked

Wild, innit?

The amtrak exists lmao

Oh, does that connect them? It wasn't even mentioned on the maps I looked at.

The amtrak connects the entire country lol.

Lol, fair. Only shows how little I use public transport these days.