Home | BaltimoreBrew.com
Neighborhoodsby Mark Reutter3:11 pmJun 20, 20140

How to get around on Light Rail over the next three weeks

Today’s closure of three Light Rail stations will cause rerouting for passengers

Above: With the Light Rail station closed at Cold Spring Lane, a man waits today for a MTA bus to take him closer to the “bridge” bus offered to stranded riders.

Nature has thrown up a barrier to Baltimore’s Light Rail line, eroding an embankment along the Jones Falls that will require the suspension of through train service until a new foundation and retaining wall are completed.

The emergency repairs – which began this morning and are expected to be finished by Friday, July 11 – will require train riders from the north (Hunt Valley, Timonium, Lutherville, etc.) to transfer to a “bridge bus” at the Falls Road station.

The bus will take them to North Avenue, where light-rail service will resume to BWI Marshall Airport and Cromwell/Glen Burnie.

Headache for Some Riders

The MTA promises comparatively few delays for county riders, which is a good thing since the line is entering its busy season with crowds attracted downtown for this weekend’s African American Festival, the Fourth of July fireworks at the Inner Harbor, and a stretch of Orioles home games at Camden Yards.

But for city riders in North Baltimore, the repairs will likely cause headaches because the bridge bus will not stop at three stations – Woodberry, Cold Spring Lane and Mt. Washington – closed for the next three weeks.

A crew begins preliminary work today on a stretch of track undermined by the Jones Falls. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

A crew begins preliminary work today on a stretch of track undermined by the Jones Falls. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

The MTA has set up these alternatives.

Patrons can find their way to 41st Street and Falls Road, or Cold Spring Lane and Falls Road, to pick up the bridge bus.

Or they can wait at the Woodberry station for a shuttle to the North Avenue station. Or wait at the Mt. Washington station for a shuttle to the Falls Road station.

There will be no shuttle service for the Cold Spring Lane station. Passengers, however, can use an MTA bus (No. 33 and 38) for the roughly four-block ride to Falls Road and Cold Spring to pick up the bridge bus.

This is the second time this year that service has been suspended at the same three stations. Back in March, the MTA closed the North Avenue-Falls Road segment for 10 days to rebuild a road crossing in Woodberry.

A Turbulent Past

The Light Rail line, brainchild of Baltimore Mayor/Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer, was opened in 1992.

The northern portion operates on the right of way of the Baltimore & Susquehanna, one of the earliest railroads built in the county. (It was chartered in 1828 by the Maryland legislature, just a year after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.)

The original line started at Bolton Hill and ran north to York, Pa., following the Jones Falls to get out of the city. While modernized over the years by its long-time owner, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the line was always subject to the whims of the seasonally turbulent Jones Falls.

According to MTA spokesperson Paulette Austrich, track inspectors found in May that erosion had come to within six feet of the tracks where the line crosses the Jones Falls south of Cold Spring Lane.

Better Safe Than Sorry

“When our engineers went out to inspect it a few days later, they determined that we should try to address the erosion immediately by single-tracking, which would allow the trains to continue running on one track, while repairs were done on the track closest to the erosion,” Austrich said.

The Woodberry and Mt. Washington stations were also closed today. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

The Woodberry and Mt. Washington stations were also closed today. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

Nature, however, had other ideas. The heavy downpours of recent weeks caused more undermining of the embankment.

Assessing the damage – and no doubt aware of what happened on 26th Street when warning signs were ignored – MTA’s safety engineers decided that it would not be prudent for trains to operate during the repairs.

The MTA has hired Southern Improvement Co. of Fairfax, Va., to build a new foundation, fill it in and construct a retaining wall between the tracks and the creek.

The work is budgeted at $1.5 million, Austrich said.

Most Popular