It could take until late summer to complete the remaining inspections, which are occurring at a time when much of the light rail fleet is out of service for an overhaul.
Green said the MTA will offer substitute bus service if it needs to check other sectors of the line.
Customers were as upset by the lack of notice of the service disruptions as they were by the problems themselves. Sullam said he saw no notifications of expected problems at stations and had receive no advisories through the e-mail service he had signed up for.
"It just seem they could be a little more customer-oriented," he said.
Sullam and Lynch said that before this week, they had generally been satisfied with the light rail.
"The service is usually fantastic," said Lynch. "I'm a great fan of the light rail."
But the talk of a bus bridge brought little comfort. Lynch recalled that when service on the northern half of the line was suspended several years ago for double-tracking while a second set of rails was built, the bus that replaced it increased his travel time from a half-hour to an hour.
"I ended up buying a car. It was just too much. It was driving me nuts," Lynch said.
michael.dresser@baltsun.com
