Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Baltimore is where the Star Spangled Banner was written, the start of the oldest railroad in the country (the Baltimore & Ohio), and where baseball’s retro-stadium construction trend began. It is also home to one of the larger transit systems in the United States.
Most of Baltimore’s transit is operated by a state agency, the Maryland Transit Administration, which is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation. Within the Baltimore area, MDOT MTA operates “core bus” service (also known as BaltimoreLink), a light rail, and subway line. MDOT MTA also operates a statewide commuter railroad, MARC, and commuter bus services that operate both to Baltimore and Washington, DC.
Baltimore’s bus network can trace its history back to various privately owned streetcar companies, the largest of which was the Baltimore Transit Company (BTCO). BTCO converted the last of its streetcars to buses in 1963 and was absorbed in to the MTA in 1970. Other private companies whose routes were absorbed by the MTA as well. In 2017, the bus network was redesigned and rebranded as BaltimoreLink.
Plans to construct rapid transit in Baltimore have been made since 1965, when the Baltimore Area Mass Transportation Plan was published. Under this plan, a Metro system similar to the one being planned for Washington, DC at the same time would have been constructed in Baltimore City and its suburbs with a total of 71 miles of track and over 60 stations. Phase 1, which designated the first lines to be built, was established in 1971. Ultimately, only the “Northeast” line would be built (today’s Metro SubwayLink) as heavy rail. The Light Rail (today’s Light RailLink) basically follows the “North” and “South” lines of the original 1965 plan. A proposal to build an east-west light rail line from Woodlawn to Hopkins Bayview and Dundalk, known as the Red Line, was cancelled in 2015. Two of the three lines on the state’s commuter rail system, MARC, serve Baltimore.
Although it is a state agency, MDOT MTA operates the "core bus" service for the Baltimore region. Many of the bus routes operating today can trace their histories to streetcar lines operated by the Baltimore Transit Company prior to being taken over by the state. In June of 2017, a redesign of the whole bus network was implemented under the brand of BaltimoreLink. Under BaltimoreLink, there are three types of services (LocalLink, CityLink, and Express BusLink). LocalLink routes are crossstown and feeder routes, CityLink routes are high frequency routes on major corridors designated with a color rather than a number, and Express BusLink routes provide commuter service via area highways or additional capacity along major corridors at peak periods. After buying exclusively from New Flyer for many years, MDOT MTA acquired buses from NovaBUS starting in 2020.
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The Baltimore Light Rail, now known as Baltimore Light RailLink, opened in conjunction with Oriole Park at Camden Yards on April 2, 1992. The route follows the "north" and "south" lines of the 1965 Baltimore Area Mass Transportation Plan that mostly never came to fruition. Governor William Donald Schaefer wanted the line built to provide transportation options to and from Camden Yards when the Orioles began playing there and the line was built without any federal funding. The line was extended in 1992, 1993, and 1997 and now serves 33 stations along 30 miles of track.
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The Baltimore Metro Subway (now officially known as Metro SubwayLink) opened on November 21, 1983. The existing line from Owings Mills to Johns Hopkins Hospital via Downtown Baltimore was originally envisioned in 1965 as part of a six line, 71 mile system spreading out from Downtown. The Metro Subway route was the first of these routes to be constructed and the only one to be built as heavy rail. (Most of the system proposed in 1965 was never constructed.) The route today extends 15.4 miles (24.8 kilometers) serving 14 stations, with about half the route being above ground. The rolling stock is made up of 100 "Universal Transit Vehicles" built by Budd. These cars are identical to the rolling stock on the Miami Metrorail, as the systems jointly purchased their rolling stock together. These cars are to be replaced by 78 cars built by Hitachi (also identical to Miami's new cars built by Hitachi) starting in 2021.
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MARC is MTA Maryland's commuter rail system connecting Baltimore and Washington. MARC also operates a third line to Frederick, Brunswick, and eastern West Virginia. MARC operates 93 trains a day over its three lines. Since December 7, 2013, limited Penn Line service has also been available on the weekends.
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The Charm City Circulator is a four route bus system operated by the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. The first route was launched on January 11, 2010 and after only about three months of operation, the system had carried 100,000 passengers. The system has been fare free since its inception.
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