Linking
Baltimore:
The Maryland Transit
Administration
By Leah Harnack
The MTA has a major network redesign and
rebranding as well as new and refurbished rail to
improve effi ciencies and safely get people in the
M
Baltimore region linked to where they want to go.
TA IS A STATEWIDE AGENCY AND A DIVISION OF THE
Maryland Department of Transportation. MTA operates
local and commuter buses, light rail, the metro subway,
Maryland Area Regional Commuter rail service, paratransit
service, and manages the Taxi Access system. MTA also
directs funding and statewide assistance to locally operated
transit systems throughout the state.
MTA serves Baltimore County, Baltimore
city and Anne Arundel County and have
about 2 million people in the service area.
Administrator and CEO Paul Comfort, is appointed
by the secretary of transportation and confi
rmed by the state’s governor and is part of the
executive branch of the Maryland government.
Th ere is no board of directors, as is usually the case
with transit systems. “I’m the administrator of our
statewide agency, but I’m CEO of Baltimore city’s
transit system,” he explained.
“I think that’s why we’re able to do big things
here, because I don’t have to answer to a whole
bunch of politicians who have their own competing
interests,” Comfort said. “I still get it … every
week I get a call from a politician who says, ‘Paul,
my grandmother has a bridge game over here on
Th ursdays, can we put a bus stop there in front of
that house?’
MTA’S BALTIMORELINK Information Bus
had reached more than 5,000 customers
throughout the region as of mid-May.
BaltimoreLink
Launch Date:
June 18, 2017
Replacing
5,000
bus stop signs
5-1/2 miles
of dedicated bus
lanes added
Bikeshare at
11 stations
TSP at
36
intersections
JUNE 2017 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 13
Photos by MTA