Waiting on the bus in Baltimore, Maryland. Image by Elvert Barnes licensed under Creative Commons.

In a stunning reversal of the decision made at the beginning of September, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) and its parent agency, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced this week, that they would immediately be canceling most of their planned cuts to bus service in and around Baltimore City.

Under the proposal, as of January 3, 2021, 16 of the MTA’s 44 “LocalLink” bus routes would have been entirely eliminated, along with all nine of its Express Bus routes and two of its 36 Commuter Bus routes.

The MTA’s new plan for adjusting its bus service to the financial pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will still substantially affect its buses and trains but much less directly, especially when it comes to the agency’s core bus service.

According to a press release from MDOT, core local bus service and the MTA’s MobilityLink rideshare service for disabled riders will continue to “operate on current schedules” with no routes canceled or suspended except the #38 bus from Westgate, a neighborhood on the southwestern border between Baltimore City and Baltimore County, to Medfield in North Baltimore and the #92 bus, otherwise known as the “Pikesville Circulator.” The Express Bus routes will remain suspended, as they have been since April.

Instead, the MTA will now take a more targeted approach to its service adjustments. While none of the Commuter Bus routes are now scheduled for elimination, almost all of them will operate on an “S”, or “Snow Day” schedule, resulting in a 55% drop in service.

The two exceptions are the #201 bus from Gaithersburg to BWI Thurgood Marshall International Airport, which will operate only the odd-numbered buses on both its weekday and weekend/holiday schedule and the #320 bus, from Columbia and Dorsey to Baltimore.

Likewise, all three of the MTA’s MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) lines will operate on an “R” or “Reduced” “Holiday” schedule, leading to a 57% decrease in service. Both changes are set to take effect on November 2 and will not affect the MTA’s contracts with its Commuter Bus providers or its slots on CSX and Amtrak’s tracks.

The MTA said that MARC ridership for the fourth week of September was down 89% and Commuter Bus ridership down 89% for the same period of time. By contrast, LocalLink ridership only dropped by 51% over the same period of time, a remarkably small drop in ridership compared to the ones experienced by transit agencies in several other cities.

The MTA’s decision to reverse the cuts came hours before the local bicycling advocacy group Bikemore, the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance (CMTA), the Maryland Sierra Club, Indivisible Towson, and several other independent organizers were set to begin three consecutive days of workshops in preparation for the beginning of the MTA’s public comment hearings on the cuts on October 5th.

They also followed intense backlash, outcry, and rallying by a wide array of state legislators, local elected officials in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, and Howard Counties, businesses, environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters, civic organizations like the Greater Baltimore Committee, school officials, teachers, parents, and students, the last of whom are largely reliant on MTA buses to get to school, and unions, including those representing frontline healthcare workers, many of whom also rely on MTA buses to get to work.

MTA’s announcement was met with relief and praise by most of the ad hoc coalition which had sprung up over the past month to oppose the cuts.

CMTA President and CEO Brian O’Malley said:

“We are gratified the MTA made this change. It’s [gone] from a very harmful proposal to a less harmful proposal. All the people and organizations who spoke up shows how essential public transportation is in greater Baltimore. But there is work to be done. We need to speak up for greater investment in better bus and train options, not less and worse.”

Maryland Sierra Club Transportation Representative Lindsey Mendelson said:

“While we’re glad to see some of these cuts reversed, the fundamental problem remains that our region’s public transit system is woefully underfunded and the long term budget does not even ensure a state of good repair we need for a safe and reliable system.”

Delegate Brooke Lierman, D-Baltimore City said she is hoping that legislation can help support the transportation needs of riders and provide funding for a more stable transit system.

“Our essential workers rely on MTA - and we rely on them. Therefore, we have to be there to fight to build a more reliable transit system for our region,” Lierman said. “I am hopeful that by passing the Transit Safety & Investment Act next session, we can avoid future shutdowns and last-minute costly repairs by investing in infrastructure before it breaks and ensuring the operating dollars exist for it to be a fully-functional service for riders around the state.”

The Transit Safety & Investment Act, which was sponsored by Lierman in the Maryland House of Delegates and by Craig Zucker (D-Montgomery) in the Maryland State Senate, would have helped solve what even before the pandemic was a significant funding hole for the MTA by requiring Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to set aside at least $5o0 million from the state’s Transportation Trust Fund over the 2022-2027 fiscal years for the agency’s capital needs.

The bill passed the House of Delegates by a veto-proof 95 votes but stalled at the last minute in the Senate where it failed to gain a committee hearing before the pandemic cut the General Assembly’s legislative session short. Lierman said she plans to reintroduce the bill next year and that Senate Deputy Majority Whip Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City), who also chairs the Senate’s Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment Subcommittee, has agreed to sponsor it in the Senate as he, Zucker, and their colleagues work to help ensure its passage.

And that, Lierman said, could go a long way towards making sure bus riders and transportation advocates don’t have to scramble to save their routes from elimination all over again.

Alex Holt is a New York state native, Maryland transplant, and freelance writer. He lives in Mt. Washington in Baltimore and enjoys geeking out about all things transit, sports, politics, and comics, not necessarily in that order. He was formerly GGWash's Maryland Correspondent.