Local
Md. officials trim MARC, bus service
By: Kytja Weir
Examiner Staff Writer
December 30, 2008
The Maryland Transit Administration is cutting back its MARC commuter train and bus service even as more riders flock to the public transit system.
The state agency said Monday it would scale back service on holidays, trim some daily trains and buses, and eliminate a 10-ride ticket to save the system an estimated $5 million in the next six months. Next year, the cuts could save the system $10 million.
Yet the cuts, which take effect Jan. 12, are less severe than what was proposed in October. Riders had complained about the initial plan and won back some services.
“The Maryland Transit Administration is to be commended for listening to what the public said and for making some adjustments,” said Ross Capon, the National Association of Railroad Passengers’ president and an occasional MARC rider. “But the overall framework they are operating in is faulty.”
More riders have flocked to the system following the spike in gas prices in the souring economy. MARC averages about 33,200 riders daily, an increase of about 6.5 percent from last year. Commuter bus ridership has climbed even more, up more than 17 percent with a daily average of 16,950 passengers.
Yet as more people abandoned cars for public transit, less money from gasoline taxes and auto titling fees went into the state’s transportation coffers, which help subsidize public transit. MARC riders say that the very popularity of the transit system is what is undermining it.
“It’s ironic they had to cut back the MARC service because of decreases to the Transportation Trust Fund,” said Christopher Field, a NASA contractor engineer who relies on MARC to get from Baltimore to his job near Seabrook.
“It’s a nasty, nasty catch-22,” MTA spokeswoman Cheron Victoria Wicker acknowledged.
Some riders, such as Capon, had asked for higher fares instead of cuts to service. But Wicker said any fare increases would have needed to be “so astronomically high it wouldn’t even be feasible.” One commuter bus fare, for example, would have had to rise more than 300 percent, she said.
“We understand that in some cases these reductions will be painful,” Wicker said, “but we hope that the number of customers impacted was minimized.”
The state agency said Monday it would scale back service on holidays, trim some daily trains and buses, and eliminate a 10-ride ticket to save the system an estimated $5 million in the next six months. Next year, the cuts could save the system $10 million.
Yet the cuts, which take effect Jan. 12, are less severe than what was proposed in October. Riders had complained about the initial plan and won back some services.
“The Maryland Transit Administration is to be commended for listening to what the public said and for making some adjustments,” said Ross Capon, the National Association of Railroad Passengers’ president and an occasional MARC rider. “But the overall framework they are operating in is faulty.”
More riders have flocked to the system following the spike in gas prices in the souring economy. MARC averages about 33,200 riders daily, an increase of about 6.5 percent from last year. Commuter bus ridership has climbed even more, up more than 17 percent with a daily average of 16,950 passengers.
Yet as more people abandoned cars for public transit, less money from gasoline taxes and auto titling fees went into the state’s transportation coffers, which help subsidize public transit. MARC riders say that the very popularity of the transit system is what is undermining it.
“It’s ironic they had to cut back the MARC service because of decreases to the Transportation Trust Fund,” said Christopher Field, a NASA contractor engineer who relies on MARC to get from Baltimore to his job near Seabrook.
“It’s a nasty, nasty catch-22,” MTA spokeswoman Cheron Victoria Wicker acknowledged.
Some riders, such as Capon, had asked for higher fares instead of cuts to service. But Wicker said any fare increases would have needed to be “so astronomically high it wouldn’t even be feasible.” One commuter bus fare, for example, would have had to rise more than 300 percent, she said.
“We understand that in some cases these reductions will be painful,” Wicker said, “but we hope that the number of customers impacted was minimized.”
