BALTIMORE — Commuters who typically use the light rail system are still waiting for things to return to normal.
Friday Maryland Transit Administration leaders shared new details about the work being done.
There’s still no real timeline concerning when the light rail system will be completed, but today MTA officials gave updates concerning the progress.
Holly Arnold who is an MTA Administrator said since December 8th the light rail service has been suspended for commuters for two major issues impacting the fleet of cars.
“ Some portion of our light rail fleet may have punctures and the electrical conduit which ultimately led us to suspending services last week,” Arnold said.
Arnold said MTA also has an issue with the inner car connector cables.
“ Our team has determined that these cables were responsible for six smoke events over the past two years. As of today our teams have inspected 41 vehicles for high voltage conduit damage of which 29 required repairs to one or more of the high voltage cables,” Arnold said.
So far, they’ve completed repairs on 17 of the cars concerning to the conduit issue, and repairs on two of the light rail cars concerning the inner car connector cable issue. However MTA leaders provided no timeline as to when these repairs will be finished.
Before the light rail cars can reenter service they must be safety certified by MTA safety department and meet state safety standards. Officials have provided complementary shuttle buses for commuters but it’s still left many of them like Lewis Cooper frustrated.
“ It is a bit of a hassle, trying to get back-and-forth like it definitely really does add to the commute. It adds a solid 45 to a hour to be completely honest because you gotta wait for the transit to take off,” Cooper said .
“ We are acting in the interest of the riders safety we wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for that. We understand the impact and we’re going to restore service as quickly as we can.
It could be a while before the work is completed but MTA officials are encouraging riders to continue checking the website and continue checking the app, for real-time updates on repairs and concerning their commutes.
