We?d like to know what bureaucrats at the Maryland Transit Administration do all day. Because running the MTA seems to be low on their priority list. The latest example is the MTA?s failure to file a report on alternatives to the proposed Red Line that should have been filed in December ? jeopardizing $3 million in design money for the project.
The federal government told state transit officials about the lapse last week. Henry Kay, deputy administrator for planning and engineering at the MTA, told The Examiner that delays in the design of the Red Line held up the proposal. But that?s like saying delays on redesigning your kitchen held up your neighbors? plans to redo their bathroom. The two are separate items.
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Communities have been meeting for years to discuss alternatives to the proposed route from Security Square Mall in Woodlawn to Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus. Their views are not contingent on a final plan ? but an ongoing discussion circling and intersecting it.
Congress approved a $3 million earmark in 2005 and gave the MTA three years to file the proper reports.
Talk about procrastination. Whoever is in charge of planning for the Red Line should have been fired last week after that phone call from the federal government. Not only did he or she fail to fulfill basic duties but for six months covered up the lapse. And no one found out!
We can?t say we?re surprised. This is the same agency that last summer could not for weeks figure out how much fuel its buses used after The Examiner made the request. And the same agency whosefare boxes routinely don?t work. A spokeswoman for the agency said earlier this year that fare boxes are down in 5 to 20 percent of buses at any given time. But passengers say broken boxes are more common. Regardless, the MTA is losing lots of money through lost fares on top of losing it through federal grants.
Even if Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who originally helped to secure federal money for the Red Line, can restore funding, who will guarantee it will be used properly? The same planner who forgot to write the report?
Elected officials, including Gov. Martin O?Malley, say one of their top priorities is getting people out of their cars and into public transit. But without an overhaul of the leadership at MTA, we will have no choice but to stay behind the wheel.
