MTA to resume light rail services Saturday; rides are free until Jan. 2
Light rail service will return Saturday just before 5 a.m. after a two-week suspension to address safety concerns.
The service was temporarily suspended for an emergency inspection of the entire light rail vehicle fleet Dec. 8. Following the inspection, MTA worked with its contractor on a repair plan.
“We’re thrilled to welcome our valued riders back aboard light rail,” MTA Administrator Holly Arnold said in a Friday news release. “Safety will always be our top priority, and I thank our riders for their patience as we completed necessary inspections and repairs.”
The MTA will be operating its normal Saturday schedule, though it will have a minimum of 14 cars available for service tomorrow, MTA spokesperson Courtney Mims said in an email. As cars complete their safety review, she added, they will be immediately operational.
When the suspension was announced, Arnold said the cables connecting cars on the light rail — which serves about 10,000 riders per day — had caused three smoke events in four months, leading to a rider and police officer receiving minor injuries.
Following a fire on Oct. 21, MTA employees discovered during inspections that high-voltage conduits in the fleet had been punctured. While they initially thought the problem just affected one car, additional inspections revealed it to be more systemic, Arnold said earlier this month.
The light rail fleet is between 24 and 31 years old, Arnold said.
While news of the suspension came less than 72 hours after the Maryland Department of Transportation announced $3.3 billion in proposed budget cuts, Arnold said the suspension was unrelated.
During the suspension, employees identified conduit damage in 28 rail cars — a problem that could lead to an electrical failure smoke event or fire, Mims said in her email.
Each car with a damaged conduit had the cable pulled for further inspection and repair, and each had the inter-car connector cable replaced with a permanent connection.
The repairs were completed by MTA contractor Alstom and were overseen by MTA Engineering and Safety and the State Safety Oversight Agency, Mims said. Once repairs were done, the documentation was reviewed and certified by the same entities before the car was released for service.
MTA doesn’t yet know the full cost of the project as the restoration process is still underway, Mims said. The agency expects to have a better picture of how much revenue was lost in the last two weeks in January, once all its numbers have been reported.
“Our focus has been on completing the work as quickly as possible and restoring service safely,” Mims said in her email.
With the service returning, shuttle buses that served light rail stations will no longer operate starting Saturday. But there may be some delays as light rail service returns, according to the Friday news release.
The MTA added that “as a courtesy to riders,” light rail service will be free until Jan. 2, giving some Ravens fans a free ride to a key game.
The Ravens will play the Miami Dolphins at M&T Bank Stadium at 1 p.m. Dec. 31. Currently, the Ravens (11-3) and Dolphins (10-4) have the top two records in AFC, and the Week 17 game could be for the conference’s coveted first-round bye and homefield advantage during the postseason, making it a hotly anticipated matchup.
Additionally, the news release states MTA has applied for $225 million in federal grant opportunities to invest in the light rail system. The funding would help get a new fleet of modern light rail vehicles. MTA expects the grant award will be announced this spring, Mims said.
For additional information and real-time updates, visit the Maryland Transit Administration website or use the Transit App to track light rail arrivals and departures.