BALTIMORE — Maryland Transit Administration officials say they have completed repairs on 18 cars in the Baltimore light rail fleet, but are still unwilling to say when light rail service might resume.
The 30-mile, 32-station light rail line has been shut down since Dec. 8 for emergency equipment repairs following several incidents involving wiring connecting the railcars [see “Baltimore light rail line shut down …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2023].
WBAL-TV reports that as of Saturday, workers had inspected 41 cars in the 53-car fleet, 29 of which were found to need repairs. While officials had said partial service could resume when eight cars were available, the completed cars must still undergo several inspections before they are cleared for service.
“We are aiming for as quickly as we can,” MTA Administrator Holly Arnold said on Thursday, according to the station. “I can’t give you a date today, but we do recognize the impact on this. … I don’t know what’s going to pop up in the documentation that our safety team or our state safety oversight team needs clarification on.”
Meanwhile, the union representing Baltimore’s light rail operators and bus drivers says its members have not been kept informed.
“We shoud have been kept in the loop,” Michael McMillan, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1300, told the station. “I am upset with [the MTA] because they did not make aware of what’s going on until after the fact.” And the shuttle bus drivers, he said, “are being thrown out there on the front lines with angry customers, having to deal wth the frustration of not being able to use light rail as a form of transportation.”
