NewrytStarcommander t1_j551opj wrote on January 20, 2023 at 1:24 PM

It makes me a little crazy that a failure on MARC is big news, yet every day what seems like half the scheduled buses are cut with no notice to riders and everyone shrugs.

DfcukinLite t1_j558eil wrote on January 20, 2023 at 2:16 PM

I would like to see data on this. Because I ride the bus everyday and have for years, I have yet to come across this issue.

Do you take public transportation?

NewrytStarcommander t1_j55asfs wrote on January 20, 2023 at 2:33 PM

Yes and I don't know what line you ride. But the NV yesterday had two cut runs in the AM when I was trying to get to work. There is data on this by line- was posted here recently; and has had a marked upward over the last few years.

Edit- here, found the link to some of the data. If you have never been affected, you are extremely lucky! https://medium.com/@daniellesweeney/the-mta-cut-2-000-bus-runs-in-baltimore-in-the-six-months-85a693371f4b. Granted this is old; I've seen something more recent and it's gotten worse. Will try to find the more recent data.

And here's what I was looking for: https://www.reddit.com/r/baltimore/comments/yv19y2/aries_for_transit_is_tracking_how_well_the_buses/

Dig into their different data sets a bit and you'll understand that you are basically a unicorn if you've never experienced service issues on MTA buses in Baltimore.

Source: I've lived car-free in Baltimore for 12+ years now. I know transit.

maiios t1_j56etxt wrote on January 20, 2023 at 6:47 PM

The most frustrating thing about the mta's data reporting is how they report OTP, but completely ignore cut runs. I did a bunch of work with the MTA data a few years ago, and I don't think there was any way to track the number of cut runs unless you pulled all of the real time data and stored it (which I did and still struggled to get a good number).

DfcukinLite t1_j55h3zh wrote on January 20, 2023 at 3:16 PM

I didn’t say “never had service issues”. I specifically take the Navy mainly as there’s a stop a block from my house that takes me to my office in the harbor. I take that, the sliver, 65, 71, and green routes regularly. Ghost buses are a thing but not “half the scheduled buses”

pathofwrath t1_j5601cr wrote on January 20, 2023 at 5:16 PM

Daily cuts are generally like single digit percentage these days. Some routes end up with more trips cut than others. Routes with higher frequency are more likely to have cuts so that already infrequent routes don't end up stranding people forever. (Cutting a trip on a route that runs every 10 minutes leads to a 20 minute gap between trips while cutting a trip on a route that comes every 30 minutes results in a 60 minute gap.)

There is a manpower shortage nationwide in the transit industry. MDOT MTA isn't unique in that challenge.