What Baltimore transit can learn from WMATA about communication

When it comes to bus or train delays, Baltimore’s transit riders are often left in the dark.

This isn’t unique to the Maryland Transit Administration, or Baltimore’s Light RailLink or Metro Subway. Clear communication of service issues with riders is frustratingly rare in transit systems around the country, and it can amplify riders’ perception of systems as being overly complicated and unreliable. And while it isn’t easy to make major systemwide improvements on communications—upgrades like real-time mapping and online data portals can be deceptively complicated—even improving the ways transit agencies communicate basic information on their websites can make a difference to riders.

This is one area where MTA can look to its neighbor to the south—WMATA—for inspiration for a few relatively small but meaningful improvements.

More complete reporting of service disruptions

Consider one recent service advisory for the Maryland Transit Administration’s Light Rail and Metro Subway. A little before 10 am on February 5, a notice went out that read, “Light RailLink is experiencing a minor service delay due to disabled train near Woodberry Station. We are working diligently to restore normal, on-time service and appreciate your patience as we do so.”

It may not offer many details, but it’s positively verbose compared to many MTA advisories. More typical examples say “Light RailLink is experiencing minor delays in service at this time,” or “Light RailLink is experiencing delays in north and southbound service.” When service is disrupted by unexpected incidents like heavy rain causing a tree to fall on light rail wires in North Baltimore, or a suspicious package at Baltimore Penn Station disrupting Penn Line and Light Rail Camden-Penn Shuttle service, more detailed information rarely gets posted or announced fast enough to make a difference for commuters.

Riders around DC still experience plenty of frustration when disruptions hit, but the available information really is on another level from what Baltimore sees. Service alerts are typically posted on WMATA’s “Status and Alerts” page and its Twitter feed, communicating the stations affected and details of an incident, whether it’s police activity, a medical emergency, or a train malfunction. These alerts are also compiled online in a “Daily Status Report” that lists all of Metrorail’s “service exceptions” for the past 24 hours, and how long they lasted. This information won’t change the fact that disruptions happen, but it does offer some transparency and helps riders, advocates, and officials build a record for accountability.

Communicating long-term service changes

Last month, MTA posted an advertisement on some bus routes that listed a URL to its Winter 2020 bus modifications. The ad directed riders to type in a long URL—https://mta.maryland.gov/servicechanges/winter2020—and when I first saw the ad, that page didn’t even work.

It does work now, and it does list maps and schedules for routes that are being adjusted, but it takes a great deal of patience to sift through MTA’s site to understand what’s changing. The site lists text descriptions of all changes first, before individually linking to each map much farther down the page. It’s less than helpful for riders who don’t have photographic memories of a given timetable or bus route.

While WMATA riders could surely find fault with their system’s own handling of route changes, the clear presentation online shows how much more effective Baltimore could be here. WMATA’s page about weekend and long-term trackwork is updated regularly with an easy-to-understand table that shows dates, lines, affected stations, and the type of work, all in one place. The status and alerts page also helpfully compiles current issues alongside planned service adjustments, so riders can keep one page on hand to reference again and again.

Communicating accessibility limitations

Something the MTA has not mentioned on its website at all since November is that a wheelchair ramp at the Convention Center light rail stop, adjacent to the Inner Harbor, has not fully been rebuilt since its sudden collapse into a sinkhole last July. It was originally scheduled to be restored by Thanksgiving, but aside from the occasional parking of an MTA police car next to the unfinished replacement ramp, the spot looks much as it did when the station reopened in August: usable for everybody except wheelchair users.

Passengers may find out about this issue through signs that are posted at various light rail stops, or through periodic announcements over station loudspeakers. For riders who may need to plan in advance for this kind of disruption, these notices may come too late to be useful. The notices only tell riders traveling to the Inner Harbor to use the nearest adjoining stops. One is Camden Yards, but the notices aren’t consistent on the other, calling it either University Center/Baltimore Street or Baltimore Arena/University Center.

At WMATA, elevator and escalator outages are frequent and unpredictable, and often pose unexpected barriers to people who rely on them. But it’s still possible for riders to check the status page or receive push alerts for known issues before they depart. It’s an imperfect system, to be sure, but a notable improvement over the incomplete elevator and escalator information on MTA’s status reports page.

So why does this all matter?

Ask riders what they’d like to see and you’ll probably get bigger requests than what I’m suggesting here. It’d be nice to know when the next subway train is coming, for instance, and which platform it will arrive on. But as a good starting place, the information that’s already being distributed could be made more useful just by emulating some small examples from WMATA.

The degree and detail of information from transit agencies can tell riders a lot about where their priorities are, as well as reveal the nature and extent of the problems those agencies face. Despite the MTA’s chronic underfunding, none of these communications problems need to be permanent.