Don't trust the light rail for your return trip after a Sunday night game

[1968_bills_fan]

The MTA advertises light rail service for 1 hour after the end of Orioles game. This did not happen on 6/28/15. The game was over a 10PM and there was no southbound train until a complaint was made and a train came at 12 midnight. About 250 people were waiting for the south train, which shrank to about 135 by midnight. This include 5 people in wheelchairs who had no means of taking a cab. Two northbound trains did run between 10:30 and 11PM, but these only picked up at Camden Yards and not at the convention center. These trains stopped at Convention Center, but did not open their doors even though there were seats and plenty of standing room available. The second northbound train announced that another train was coming directly after it, but this was a lie. (the final northbound train came about 11:30). People standing waiting were harassed by street people, trying to claim they owned baseball mitts of some of the children waiting. Didn't get home until 1PM- an unpleasant night. Anyway the O's are in first place.

[ShannieDC]

I was there also, that was insane!

[allquixotic]

I stopped taking the light rail this year, after taking it to O's games from Cromwell for years. Reasons:

• Reliability of service times has been degrading year over year.
  
• They run these things until they break. The chances of them having a multiple fatality crash in the near future are, in my opinion, extremely high. I don't trust them. The lightrail system is aging and they are not putting any money into maintenance or safety.
  
• I'm horrified of stinging flying insects, but it seems like every other time I get on light rail, the doors open and let in a yellowjacket or hornet or wasp. Which of course has to land right next to me or something and freak me out. I keep my windows closed in my car for a reason.
  
• Constant beggars at Cromwell. Fewer of them at OPACY, but still see them sometimes. Sometimes even beggars on the train. You can hardly buy a ticket without being harangued to buy some stranger a ticket, too.
  
• The first train home is always insanely crowded. I never have to drive home in my car with some dude's arse in my face.
  
• I bought a hybrid. The slow slog out of Baltimore uses up very little fuel, now. The trip to and from the parking garage is almost trivial on the wallet now.
  
• I learned to use Google Maps to navigate me out of the city. It'll tell me the fastest way to get out depending on where the accidents / crowds of people crossing the street are. This minimizes the amount of fighting I have to do to get out onto the open road after the game. Just make the turns when it tells you to.
  
• The parking garage I go to gives me a pretty good deal.
  
• It's nice exercise walking from the garage to the stadium and back. It's less exercise to go from OPACY to the train station.
  
• I feel like my car is safer in a paying-customers-only parking garage than in an MTA parking lot.
  

I, too, have been made to wait hours for trains before. Plus, there can be ridiculous delays for things like track work or Artscape or any other disruptions or events that are going on in the city.

You may save a FEW dollars taking the train, especially if you have a fuel-inefficient vehicle, but if you have an econo car (or better yet, a hybrid), it's probably cheaper to drive, and faster, and more pleasant. Plus, you can divert to make a stop somewhere between B'more and home, if you identify the need to go to a store or want to get late dinner.

Never again, MTA. It's unpleasant, unreliable, not that much cheaper, and wastes a lot of time to take the train. If I go to a 1:35 game, I'm home before 5:30 if I drive. If I take the light rail, I'm lucky to get home by 6:30.

[MurphDogg]

Oof, sounds like unintended consequences of rescheduling the double header. Sorry to hear you guys went through that.

[1968_bills_fan]

Most of the time things work well for us- I go from near Annapolis to my seat in about 45 minutes. I drive (97 & "ferndale exit off of road to tunnel) to N Lithacium station and come back boarding at the convention center. $1.10 round trip for seniors. At N.Litha, you caan get on either the BWI or the Cromwell southbound. This year I've noticed that they are checking the arrival time at stations to keep the trains more on time. Anyway I suggest people write to the governor (who appoints the head of the MTA), the Sun, and the MTA and the Orioles to complain, if you got shafted last nite. :angryfire: Going to leave in about 90 minutes for the Ranger's game!!

[webbrick2010]

[Nevermore]

I have visited Japan 3 times. I have noted their marvelous pubic transit system: subways, the bullet trains, and other trains going between cities and locations plus the airport. I got extremely spoiled using these Japanese trains. When I returned to my home in the US, the transit system seemed almost 3rd world compared to Japan's. I've been told that the Europeans have extensive train systems, not only within their countries but inbetween countries. For some masochistic reasons, US travelers would rather crawl in their cars, going 3 MPH on congested roads, rather than fund efficient transit systems.

I've taken the Light Rail to baseball and football games and other events with no problems. My car is a gas guzzler because I am handicapped and need a special van with a ramp to get in and out my car. I was one of the folks in wheelchairs waiting on the Light Rail ramp after the night game. I wasn't able to take a cab because US cabs aren't equipped for wheelchairs, though many Japanese cabs are equipped. I didn't get home until 12:30 AM. Aparently, between O's management, the MTA they couldn't get their stories straight, and thus the mess. :angryfire:

[TonySoprano]

Great game, miserable trip home

Two northbound trains did run between 10:30 and 11PM, but these only picked up at Camden Yards and not at the convention center. These trains stopped at Convention Center, but did not open their doors even though there were seats and plenty of standing room available.

Umm, no. They left the doors open for about 10 minutes at Camden Yards stop and filled it beyond capacity. There were absolutely no seats open and people were sitting in the stairwells while most of us stood.

Now to whatever idiot is in charge of the light rail, I hope you have a new job on Monday. They knew yesterday around 1 pm they had a rescheduled night at the Yard and it was going to be a huge attendance night. So what do they do? They hold up ALL trains until after the game was over. Great plan, let the platforms completely overflow with people waiting for a ride. We were barely lucky enough to get on the first northbound train and it was standing room only inside, shoulder to shoulder. If you didn't get on the train at the warehouse (Camden Yards) stop, fuhgeddaboudit it, you watched a jammed full train go by you.

[TouchemAll]

I stopped taking the light rail this year, after taking it to O's games from Cromwell for years. Reasons:

• Reliability of service times has been degrading year over year.
• They run these things until they break. The chances of them having a multiple fatality crash in the near future are, in my opinion, extremely high. I don't trust them. The lightrail system is aging and they are not putting any money into maintenance or safety.
• I'm horrified of stinging flying insects, but it seems like every other time I get on light rail, the doors open and let in a yellowjacket or hornet or wasp. Which of course has to land right next to me or something and freak me out. I keep my windows closed in my car for a reason.
• Constant beggars at Cromwell. Fewer of them at OPACY, but still see them sometimes. Sometimes even beggars on the train. You can hardly buy a ticket without being harangued to buy some stranger a ticket, too.
• The first train home is always insanely crowded. I never have to drive home in my car with some dude's arse in my face.
• I bought a hybrid. The slow slog out of Baltimore uses up very little fuel, now. The trip to and from the parking garage is almost trivial on the wallet now.
• I learned to use Google Maps to navigate me out of the city. It'll tell me the fastest way to get out depending on where the accidents / crowds of people crossing the street are. This minimizes the amount of fighting I have to do to get out onto the open road after the game. Just make the turns when it tells you to.
• The parking garage I go to gives me a pretty good deal.
• It's nice exercise walking from the garage to the stadium and back. It's less exercise to go from OPACY to the train station.
• I feel like my car is safer in a paying-customers-only parking garage than in an MTA parking lot.

I, too, have been made to wait hours for trains before. Plus, there can be ridiculous delays for things like track work or Artscape or any other disruptions or events that are going on in the city.

You may save a FEW dollars taking the train, especially if you have a fuel-inefficient vehicle, but if you have an econo car (or better yet, a hybrid), it's probably cheaper to drive, and faster, and more pleasant. Plus, you can divert to make a stop somewhere between B'more and home, if you identify the need to go to a store or want to get late dinner.

Never again, MTA. It's unpleasant, unreliable, not that much cheaper, and wastes a lot of time to take the train. If I go to a 1:35 game, I'm home before 5:30 if I drive. If I take the light rail, I'm lucky to get home by 6:30.

IMHO this isn't just a recent problem. I used the MTA northbound YEARS ago ONE TIME and it was Horrible never again.

[catseyepub]

not that it makes a difference but how many are buying tix for the light rail?

They operate on an honor system which is kinda crazy.

[scottbbfm]

It's a disgrace. It would be one thing if they just didn't say anything, but they specifically ADVERTISED it would run an hour after the game.

The whole weekend was run poorly, Friday night all the ATM's with the exception of 1 were out of money. The line looked like a bank line in Athens. It would be one thing if they ran out Sunday night but Friday was the first day of a homestand!

On the flip side everyone raves about Japan's train system but their national debt is 2x their GDP...so I guess we get what we pay for.

[CA-ORIOLE]

People standing waiting were harassed by street people, trying to claim they owned baseball mitts of some of the children waiting.

Street people? You mean the artists and children?

[sportsfan8703]

Use uber. You'll be shocked at how cheap,clean,fast it is.

[1968_bills_fan]

Tony, you are only part correct about the northbound trains being filled. I was waiting for the southbound train at the handicap ramp at Convention Center. IT is directly opposite the last car of the northbound train. , so I got a very good look at it. The first northbound train had just a few standee's in the last car but the second had empty seats and nobody standing. The front was packed, the back still could have taken 50+ people.

[1968_bills_fan]

Street people? You mean the artists and children?

Some small, poorly dressed guy was trying to hustle a baseball mitt off of a kid, using the barely legal bully method with slightly hidden aggression. The method was to claim that the mitt was his and crowd the kid and make him feel threatened. It is a typical panhandler method that just falls short of robbery statues. Men on the platform crowded the panhandler back and he changed to the spare change speel after a while. The Baltimore traffic cops had left and after 30 minutes the MTA cops came and stayed and those types went awy.