MTA

Bus operators are being encouraged to call police and stop the vehicle at the first sign of disruptive behavior as part of a plan to curb violence on public transit, the Maryland Transit Administration announced yesterday. Responding to a series of assaults recently on its buses in Baltimore, the MTA also said it would step up patrols by its police force and forge a closer working relationship with the Baltimore Police Department and the city school system. Among other steps, the MTA plans to speed notification of city officers when an incident occurs on a bus or other transit facilities in the city.

The new leadership of the Maryland Transit Administration is halting one of the signature transportation programs launched under Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. -- a comprehensive route restructuring known as the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative. MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld said Democrat Martin O'Malley plans to take a more incremental approach to route changes -- making limited changes three times a year rather than a sweeping series of changes at once. The acknowledgement that the initiative had been scrapped came as Wiedefeld and his management team held a "round- table" for reporters on plans for the state's transit system.

A light rail train driver and five passengers were taken to hospitals with minor injuries after the train and a tractor-trailer truck collided yesterday in Hunt Valley, authorities said. The train was derailed by the collision, leading to an interruption of service in the area. The truck driver was traveling south on Gilroy Road near Schilling Circle about 10:45 a.m. when he made a left turn to cross the tracks, according to Maj. Stanford Franklin, a Maryland Transit Administration police spokesman.

THE PROBLEM -- The bus shelter on St. Paul Street near Penn Station is in disrepair and has no directional map. THE BACKSTORY -- Douglas Manger of Pikesville wrote an impassioned complaint to Watchdog about trying to take the bus after getting off a train at Penn Station during a recent rainstorm: "Imagine your excitement visiting Baltimore for the first time. You step off the train and on a whim decide to take the city bus to gain a feel for the urban landscape. The porter directs you to the St. Paul side of the station.

The tires of as many as 25 vehicles were slashed Friday on the park-and-ride lot at the Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) stop in West Baltimore, the Mass Transit Administration said.Fifteen commuters filed reports with MTA on Friday night after returning to their vehicles at West Mulberry and Smallwood streets and finding their tires slashed, said Anthony Brown, an agency spokesman.Brown estimated that the tires of as many as 25 cars were slashed, but said only 15 owners filed reports with MTA police.

Bus service in the Baltimore region is being compromised by cutbacks, resulting in a fleet older than the national average and buses that are unreliable and dirty, according to a report being released today by a citizens group.During a two-month study of Mass Transit Administration bus service, the Citizens Planning and Housing Association also found that:Few bus operators announce major stops and transfer points, despite being required to do so by their contract and the Americans With Disabilities Act.Buses routinely are sent on the street with broken windows and seats.

The Mass Transit Administration is extending hours of operation on the Metro and light rail for New Year's Eve revelers:The Metro subway will operate until 2 a.m. between Owings Mills and Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Lexington Market, Charles Center and Shot Tower/Market Place stations serve the downtown area. Free parking for 8,000 vehicles is available along the system.The light rail, which operates between Hunt Valley and Cromwell Station/Glen Burnie, will operate until 2 a.m. The Camden Yards, Baltimore Street, Convention Center and Lexington Market stops serve the downtown area.

THE MASS Transit Administration will have to raise fares or cut services to meet the state's excessively stringent demands. Either move would be a mistake.A fare increase for buses, light rail and the Metro would chase customers away and make it far more expensive to ride mass transit in Baltimore than in Washington and most other cities.A reduction in service would steer MTA away from its goal of connecting commuters to new communities and workers to emerging employment centers. A service cut would create a public transportation system with more gaps, longer waits and shorter hours.

Every school morning, Shawna Jeffress sprints through Mondawmin Transit Center.Sometimes, the Cherry Hill resident's subway train arrives late. Other times, the bus leaves minutes early. Either way, she usually misses the bus -- and the bell that starts her pre-nursing classes at Baltimore City Community College.Jeffress and many commuters want to improve the West Baltimore bus and subway depot and better coordinate schedules, which is why the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA)

Carroll residents have repeatedly rejected plans to bring public transportation to the county, but state transportation officials have defined a need and continue to make a case for mass transit.Mass Transit Administration officials met with about 30 county administrators and residents in Westminster last night. They reviewed a proposed 20-year Transit Master Plan and asked for suggestions to improve local transportation. Similar sessions are taking place across the state."This is our first attempt to produce specific local projects and give a statewide perspective," said Harvey S. Zelefsky, MTA planning manager.

A Maryland Transit Administration official said Wednesday that the state plans to check the electronic system controlling Baltimore's subway trains after federal safety officials warned that glitches with a similar control system for Washington's Metro might have caused a fatal crash there in June. Vern Hartsock, MTA's deputy director for engineering and construction, said he expects to meet today with a team of experts in response to a call by the National Transportation Safety Board to examine similar train control systems for problems or weaknesses.

David M. Berry, a lifelong transit enthusiast who later became a Maryland Transit Administration bus driver, died of liver failure Sept. 8 at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 45. Mr. Berry was born in Baltimore and raised in Govans, and graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1982. "When he was 5 years old, he decided he no longer wanted to be a garbage man, but a bus driver," said his mother, Gwendolyn Berry, a retired Waverly Press proofreader, with whom he lived in the Loch Hill section of Baltimore County.

Three new MARC locomotives that were expected to be put into service in June are still confined to a train yard in Locust Point because of a dispute between the state and the manufacturer over safety testing, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation. The locomotives - the first of a new fleet of 26 being purchased at a cost of $100 million - will not be deployed until the Maryland Transit Administration is satisfied they have been thoroughly vetted, Transportation Department spokesman Jack Cahalan said Thursday in response to inquiries from The Baltimore Sun. On May 6, the MTA staged a news conference at which Gov. Martin O'Malley arrived at Camden Station aboard one of the locomotives.

Maryland's acting transportation chief, citing concerns about privacy, has pulled back an internal proposal to use listening devices on its buses and trains for recording conversations of passengers and employees. The Maryland Transit Administration had been considering adopting a system that would allow it to conduct audio surveillance similar to that in several other large U.S. cities. The idea was first reported late last week by the Maryland Politics Watch blog, which reported that the MTA's top official had requested an opinion from the Attorney General's Office on the legality of such surveillance.

When the first of 26 shiny new diesel locomotives for the MARC system was unveiled May 6, it arrived at Camden Yards with television cameras shooting, Gov. Martin O'Malley riding with the engineer and assurances that the $3.5 million powerhouse would be on the rails in four to six weeks. More than 10 weeks later, that locomotive and two others are still in a CSX maintenance yard, undergoing safety testing. A Maryland Transit Administration spokeswoman said the agency hopes to have the units in service within 30 days but offered no guarantees.

MARC rider Suzanne Lurie's knees were hurting her, so of course she wrote her local transportation columnist. Who would you consult - an orthopedist? Lurie had some questions about the MARC station in Halethorpe. She thought I could get some answers out of the Maryland Transit Administration. As it turns out, tormenting the MTA is one of my specialties. But let's let Lurie tell her (lightly edited) story: I began working in DC a little over 3 years ago. I live in Owings Mills so, all things considered, Halethorpe is the best choice MARC train station for me. As you probably are aware, in order to access the southbound side of the tracks from the northbound side, a person must ascend about 50 steps to an overpass, cross the tracks via the overpass, then descend at least another 50 steps on the other side.

Even before Sunday's fatal accident in which two teenage boys were hit by a Maryland Transit Administration light rail train in Lutherville, a serious crime apparently took place a short distance away. According to the MTA, someone - whose identity is not yet known to the public - placed a large section of highway guardrail across the northbound tracks just south of the station. That act of vandalism - if not outright sabotage - has been overshadowed by the tragedy that occurred about an hour later, but it set in motion the chain of events that led to the deaths of Kyle Patrick Wankmiller and Connor Peterson, both 17. According to MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene, the boys were struck by a northbound train as they walked on southbound tracks that had been put into two-way operation because the roughly 10-foot-long guardrail had damaged an earlier train.

In the wake of fatal transit accidents across the nation, the Maryland Transit Administration has adopted a zero-tolerance policy under which any bus or train operator found using a cell phone or text-messaging device on the job will be fired, even for a first offense. The MTA took the action shortly after the Washington Metro system announced a similar change Thursday morning, scrapping a "three-strikes-and-you're-out" policy and vowing to fire violators outright. Texting has been identified as a major factor in rail accidents - and 25 deaths - in California and Massachusetts during the past year.

Shortly after the mother of one of the boys killed in Sunday's light rail accident questioned the objectivity of Maryland Transit Administration police, the agency's top official moved Wednesday to have Baltimore County police take the lead in the investigation. MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld said he has full confidence in his agency's police department but was taking the step "out of respect for the family." Amy Wankmiller, mother of Kyle Wankmiller, 17, had expressed concern that the MTA Police would protect agency employees involved in the accident near the Lutherville station.

The two teens fatally struck Sunday near the Lutherville light rail station were hit as they walked in the middle of the tracks with their backs to a train, the Maryland Transit Administration has determined. MTA police made the judgment that the deaths were accidental after viewing video from the train that hit the pair about 2:55 p.m. Sunday, agency spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said Tuesday. She said family members were briefed by the MTA on that conclusion. The MTA said earlier Tuesday that it believed Connor Peterson and Kyle Patrick Wankmiller, both 17, had been lying on the tracks while two trains passed over them.