Maryland Transit Administration
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The Maryland Transit Administration, sometimes called MTA Maryland to avoid confusion with other cities' agencies called MTA, is a metropolitan transit service serving all of Baltimore, Maryland and the surrounding areas. The MTA also administers the Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC) commuter rail system, which serves the Baltimore-Washington area. Bus routes in the Washington, DC area, including the Maryland suburbs, are run by WMATA.
The MTA was originally known as the Baltimore Metropolitan Transit Authority and then the Baltimore Mass Transit Administration before it changed to its current name. The MTA took over the operations of the Baltimore Transit Company on April 30, 1970.
The Maryland Transit Administration current fleet of buses contains Flxibles (formerly known as Grumman Flxible) buses that were ordered from 1980-1995, North American Bus Industries (NABI) buses ordered from 1995-2000, a fleet of articulated buses from NABI in 1996, and its most recent order, in 2003, a set of low-floor buses from Neoplan. It has been said that the Maryland Transit Administration might order more articulated buses in 2004 or 2005 from Neoplan. In early 2004, the Maryland Transit Administration ordered more low floor buses but this time from New Flyer. On November 20th, 2004, the Maryland Transit Administration received its first New Flyer bus, coach number 04001, a 40 foot New Flyer. The Maryland Transit Administration is expected to receive 230 New Flyers, some will be regular 40 foot low floor New Flyer buses, some will be hybrids, and some will be "baby" New Flyers according to the BTCO message board.
The Maryland Transit Administration also has two forms of rapid transit. A light rail system and a Metro subway system. The light rail leads from Glen Burnie (Cromwell) to Hunt Valley, Maryland. The subway system leads from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland to Owings Mills, Maryland, with two spurs one going to BWI Airport and the other to Penn Station. For more information on these systems, see the article on Rail transit in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Maryland Transit Administration is currently double-tracking its light rail system, north of its North Avenue station, and sending their Metro cars out to be rehabbed. The Maryland Transit Administration is also competing with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to obtain federal funding to build a maglev route from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland.
In early 2005, the Maryland Transit Administration put the recently ordered 40-foot New Flyers out on the streets on select bus routes.
See also
External links
- Official MTA site (http://www.mtamaryland.com/)
- Baltimore Transit Company history, including a forum (http://www.btco.net/)