Michael Dresser

Of all the customers of the Maryland Transit Administration, none are more vocal than MARC train riders in crying foul over real and imagined service lapses.

Many MARC folks come from a more elevated social strata than other public transit riders, and their expectations are high. Indignities MTA bus riders endure in silence bring protests from MARC passengers. And MARC riders can be quick to point the finger at the wrong people for the unavoidable mishaps that occur when commuter trains share a fragile system with Amtrak and CSX.

But sometimes a MARC rider registers a complaint that goes straight to the heart of issues for which the MTA is fully culpable. So it is with Timberly Wuester of Baltimore.

Last Tuesday morning was a bone-chilling reminder that winter doesn’t end in February. Wuester writes that she arrived at the West Baltimore MARC station to catch the 5:32 a.m. train. At the platform, a fellow passenger informed her the train was expected to be 15 minutes late.

[...]

Wuester and her fellow passengers waited for the 6:02 a.m. train, but it didn’t arrive. Finally, she reported, the 6:24 a.m. train arrived and was overrun with passengers who had been skipped there and in Halethorpe.

“We were treated to an hour in the cold, courtesy of MARC and Amtrak,” she writes.

Wuester recounted that when she called the MTA, she was greeted with a snippy: “Did you call just to vent or did you want information?”

[...]

Wuester writes that the customer service person took her information and passed it up the line. About an hour later she finally received a call from an official who did apologize.

[...]

My take: The MTA is not to blame when the trains run late. On the Penn Line, Amtrak rules. When a train is running late, Amtrak makes the calls about stopping at stations. The MTA doesn’t get a vote. However, the MTA could do a better job of explaining to customers why trains sometimes pass them by. It should also make sure that neither Amtrak nor CSX are employing arbitrary or dated criteria in making operational decisions.

The MTA is fully responsible for keeping passengers informed so they can decide to huddle in their cars with the heater on or to make alternate arrangements. Keeping the PA system operational at West Baltimore is the kind of basic “system preservation” we’ve been assured by Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari that the state would continue to fund. It should have never come to this point.

[...]

The MTA is also responsible for the courtesy of its front-line customer service representatives. Smart-mouthing frostbitten riders is unacceptable. They have a right to vent.