CityLink One Month Later: Not Exactly a “Show-and-Go” Bus System
Now that the dust has settled and BaltimoreLink has been declared a success by Governor Larry Hogan, it’s time to begin evaluating whether CityLink high-frequency buses can deliver on their promise of transforming transportation in Baltimore City.
Hogan recently told WBAL news that the state is “thrilled” with the BaltimoreLink system reboot, that “drive times are cut in half,” and that “people are getting places faster.”
A few weeks earlier, MTA’s acting chief Kevin Quinn told local media that CityLink buses are “show and go,”: they arrive so frequently that riders don’t need timetables or scheduling apps.
Baltimoreans who actually ride the bus, however, are hardly so enthusiastic.
Five weeks into the new system, reaction to CityLink has generally been a combination of wait-and-see, ambivalence, and disappointment, even among the most informed transit riders.
At least part of the ambivalence stems from the much-hyped high-frequency buses themselves. Are they delivering on their promise — and if so, are high-frequency buses what Baltimore needs to improve riders’ commute times?
During the first month of the new system rollout, I rode many of the high-frequency lines and tracked their “on time” arrivals as part of a project for the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance’s Transit 101 class for citizen activists.
For the record, I’m a longtime rider of MTA and the Charm City Circulator buses in Baltimore City and have reported on transit issues and the MTA for Baltimore’s government accountability news blog, the Baltimore Brew.
I understand bus schedules, headways, and the value of a coherent multimodal, interconnected transportation system. I also understand the realities that come with running such a system in Baltimore City.
Here’s how the CityLink buses have performed for me so far.
Inconsistent Headways
I have monitored 15 bus stops in neighborhoods across Baltimore, from Shipley Hill in the Southwest, to Bayview on the East side, to Easterwood in West Baltimore as well as stops in the central business district.
CityLink headways are variable by design, with faster service during peak rush hours and traditional “slower” service off peak.
Some routes promise 9-minute buses (CityLink Red, which travels from the University of Maryland downtown to Lutherville), the highest frequency, while others such as CityLink Lime (which travels from Northwest Hospital Center to Harbor East) run at closer to 20-minute intervals.
CityLink Brown, on the other hand, is a combination, with 5–10-minute headways for some stops and 20-minute headways for others. The Brown route travels from University of Maryland Medical Center to White Marsh.
I have found few CityLink routes to be uniformly successful at maintaining their run times. Every trip has been off by at least a few minutes, often more. (Realistically a few minutes is to be expected, as bus timetables are approximate.)
While some buses arrive ten minutes apart when they should be averaging closer to fifteen, they still manage to deliver four buses per hour without any “misses.” A success by MTA standards.
When I tracked the CityLink Red route on June 28 at Baltimore and Howard streets, the buses were scheduled for nine-minute headways.
One bus arrived at 4:00 p.m., another at 4:15 p.m, another at 4:23, the next at 4:25, the next at 4:43 — with the last one of the hour at 4:46 p.m. A 15-minute headway, an 8-minute headway, a 2-minute headway, an 18-minute headway, and a 3-minute headway.
Not exactly nine-minute buses, and a fair amount of inconsistency, but six buses did arrive within an hour.
Three Buses Arrived Within Two Minutes
I’ve found other CityLink routes to be far more unpredictable.
Take for instance CityLink Blue, which travels from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Woodlawn to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Last week, I tracked the CityLink Blue (Westbound) at Saratoga and St. Paul streets in the middle of the central business district for one hour. CityLink blue buses were scheduled for approximate 10-minute headways.
Instead, the blue buses arrived at 10:31 a.m. (2 of them), 10:33 a.m., 11:17 a.m., 11:19 a.m., and 11:24 a.m. A half hour or so worth of buses arrived in two minutes.
The next bus came 44 minutes later. Another CityLink blue followed on its heels two minutes after that.
So we have a 0-minute headway, a 2-minute headway, a 44-minute headway, and another 2-minute headway. That’s quite a range and hardly the hallmark of “show and go” bus system.
Here’s a similar example.
Sunday, the CityLink Orange, which travels from West Baltimore to Essex, was scheduled for approximate 15-minute headways for most of the day. I arrived at the bus stop at 11:57 a.m. and waited 45 minutes at Fayette and Holliday streets for the first Orange bus to arrive. (A bus with passengers drove by at 12:09 p.m., but had a “No Passengers” sign posted.)
The next Orange came two minutes later and was followed by another, six minutes after that.
What’s the point of touting 10- and 15-minute headways if many of those buses aren’t even “close”?
MTA has acknowledged its headway problems, but has not publicly articulated a plan for managing them.
If CityLink buses are to be the linchpin for the “more reliable transportation experience” that Baltimore deserves — and that Gov. Hogan promised — MTA needs to come up with a strategy for making the buses arrive more consistently.
My question today: does it have one?
