When the single-car light rail train pulled into Mount Washington station about 3:30 p.m., it was so crowded that David Utley couldn't board it with his bicycle to get to his job at Penn Station. He decided to wait for the next train - which didn't come for another 50 minutes. And it was so overstuffed that Utley just gave up.
"Time for Plan B," he said as he wheeled his bike away from the station.
The Mount Washington man is one of thousands of light rail riders who have had their lives disrupted as the Maryland Transit Administration grapples with maintenance issues that have sidelined more than three-quarters of its rail cars at peak travel times.
The resulting delays and cattle-car conditions have outraged passengers and led some to question the system's safety and its managers' competence. MTA officials have had little advice to give light rail's roughly 26,000 daily passengers except to be patient.
MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld said yesterday that the agency is working around the clock to restore service to normal. But he said the MTA needed to cut back service after maintenance officials found a crack April 23 in a wheel of one car of an out-of-service train in the railyard. The discovery prompted the agency to increase its scheduled inspections of the equipment, taking many cars out of service.
"I understand the frustration of the customers, what they're experiencing, but I've got to make sure they're safe," he said.
The delays and crowding come as soaring gas prices are giving commuters extra incentive to consider public transit. MTA spokeswoman Cheron Wicker said the agency recognizes it is "an especially difficult" time to have service disruptions. Officials don't know if the problems are cutting into ridership, she said.
The crowding appeared to ease slightly yesterday morning as the MTA said it put 13 cars on the line - up one from the previous day. A 7:05 a.m. northbound train leaving from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport had riders standing in the aisles of its single car after an influx at Patapsco station, but it still wasn't as packed as cars witnessed during the evening rush hours yesterday and Tuesday.
A two-car train heading north from downtown during yesterday's evening rush had some standing passengers after stopping at North Avenue but no shoulder-to-shoulder closeness. But a rider going south from Mount Washington had to endure a 30-minute wait and severe crowding all the way to North Avenue, where the train was stopped and passengers ordered off because of a police activity along Howard Street.
