The Baltimore Light RailLink (formerly Baltimore Light Rail, also known simply as the "Light Rail") is a
light rail
Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
system serving
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
, United States, and its northern and southern suburbs. It is operated by the
Maryland Transit Administration
The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is a state-operated mass transit administration in Maryland, and is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT). The MTA operates a comprehensive transit system throughout the Washington� ...
(MTA Maryland).
In downtown Baltimore, it uses
street-embedded tracks. Outside the central portions of the city, the line is located on private
rights-of-way, mostly from the defunct
Northern Central Railway
The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad in the United States connecting Baltimore, Maryland, with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania R ...
,
Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad
The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad (B&A) was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th century to connect the cities of Baltimore and Annapolis. From 1897 to 1968 the railroad ran between Annapolis and Clifford along the north s ...
and
Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway
The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) was an American railroad that operated from 1899 until 1935 in central Maryland and Washington, D.C.
It was built by a group of Cleveland, Ohio, electric railway entrepreneurs to se ...
. The system had a ridership of , or about per weekday, as of .
History
Initial segment
The origins of the Light RailLink lie in a 1966 Baltimore area transit plan that envisioned six rapid transit lines radiating from the city center. By 1983, only one of the plan's lines—the "Northwest" line—had been built, becoming the
Metro SubwayLink. Much of the plan's "North" and "South" lines ran along
rights-of-way once used by
interurban streetcar lines and the
commuter rail
Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...
routes of the
Northern Central Railway
The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad in the United States connecting Baltimore, Maryland, with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania R ...
,
Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway
The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) was an American railroad that operated from 1899 until 1935 in central Maryland and Washington, D.C.
It was built by a group of Cleveland, Ohio, electric railway entrepreneurs to se ...
, and
Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad
The Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad (B&A) was an American railroad of central Maryland built in the 19th century to connect the cities of Baltimore and Annapolis. From 1897 to 1968 the railroad ran between Annapolis and Clifford along the north s ...
.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Governor of Maryland and former Baltimore mayor
William Donald Schaefer pushed for a transit line along the plan's "North" and "South" corridors, motivated in part by a desire to establish a rail transit link to the new baseball park being built at
Camden Yards
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, commonly known as Camden Yards, is a ballpark in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the home of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the Baseball park#Retro-classic ballparks, "retro" major le ...
for the
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...
. Light RailLink was built quickly and inexpensively without federal funds, a rarity for a U.S. transit project. The initial system was a single line, all at-grade except for a bridge over the Middle Branch of the
Patapsco River
The Patapsco River ( ) mainstem is a river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal portion forms the harbor for the city of Baltimore. With its South Branch, the Patapsco forms the northern border of Howar ...
just south of downtown Baltimore. The line ran from
Timonium in
Baltimore County
Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. The county is part of the Central Maryland region of the state. Baltimore County partly surrounds but does not include the independent city ...
in the north to
Glen Burnie in
Anne Arundel County
Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...
in the south.
The line opened in stages over a 14-month period. The initial segment from Timonium Fairgrounds station (now
Fairgrounds station) to
Camden Yards station opened for limited service for Orioles games on
April 2, 1992, and for full service on May 17.
A three-station extension to
Patapsco opened on August 20, 1992, followed by a 4-station extension to
Linthicum on April 2, 1993, and an additional 2-station extension to
Glen Burnie on May 20, 1993.
Station placement and design were intended to be flexible and change over time, as stations could be built or closed at low cost. However, they were at times dictated by politics rather planning: proposed stops in
Ruxton, Riderwood, and
Cross Keys were not built due to local opposition, while Mt. Royal station (now
Mt. Royal/MICA station) and Timonium Business Park station (now
Timonium station) were built despite nearly being removed from the plan because the
University of Baltimore
The University of Baltimore (UBalt, UB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is part of the University System of Maryland. UBalt consists of four colleges in applied arts and sciences, Robert G. Merrick School of Bu ...
and a local business group funded them.
Falls Road station was built with less parking than ridership required because community requests and a fence prevented riders from accessing a nearby commercial building.
Expansion
Three extensions to the system were added in 1997. On September 9, the line was extended north to
Hunt Valley, adding five stations that served a major
business park
A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...
and a mall.
On December 6, two short but important branches were added to the system: a spur in Baltimore that provided a link to the
Penn Station intercity rail hub, and a spur to the terminal of
BWI Airport.
On September 6, 1998, the Hamburg Street station (now
Stadium/Federal Hill station) opened as an
infill station
An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train ser ...
between the existing
Westport and Camden Yards stations.
Adjacent to
M&T Bank Stadium
M&T Bank Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It has been the home of the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL) since its opening in 1998. The stadium is immediately adjacent to Oriol ...
, it was initially only open during
Ravens
Ravens may refer to:
* Raven, a species of the genus ''Corvus'' of passerine birds
Sports
* Anderson Ravens, the intercollegiate athletic program of Anderson University in Indiana
* Baltimore Ravens, a professional American football franchise
* B ...
games and other major stadium events, but became a full-time stop on July 1, 2005.
To save money, much of the system was built with only a single track. While this allowed the system to be constructed and opened quickly, it limited the system's flexibility: much of the line was restricted to 17-minute
headway
Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...
s, with no way to reduce headways during peak hours. Federal money was acquired to double track most of the system; much of the line south of downtown Baltimore was shut down in 2004 and north of downtown shut down in 2005 in order to complete this project. The northern section up to Timonium reopened in December 2005; the rest opened in February 2006. The line north of Gilroy Road and the BWI Airport spur remain single tracked.
Incidents
On July 10, 2019, part of the northbound platform at
Convention Center station fell into a sinkhole caused by a broken water main. The line was closed between Camden and North Avenue until August 19.
On December 7, 2023, MTA Maryland announced the system would shut down indefinitely after inspections revealed a fire hazard in the rolling stock. A free shuttle bus service connected Light Rail stations as repairs were made to the 53-car fleet. Service resumed on December 23.
Operation
Routing and schedules
The Light RailLink system consists of a main north–south line on which 28 of the system's 33 stops are located. There are two branches on the southern end to BWI Airport and Glen Burnie that have two stations each and one spur in Baltimore City for
Penn Station that can only be entered heading north and exited heading south. There are still single-track sections north of Timonium, where
headway
Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...
s are limited to 15 minutes.
The Light RailLink system has two train runs. One runs the full length of the main line between Hunt Valley and either BWI Airport or Glen Burnie, alternating between the two every other trip, with some off-peak trains originating or terminating at either
North Avenue or Fairgrounds instead of Hunt Valley. The other—the Penn-Camden Shuttle—only runs through downtown between Penn Station and Camden Station.
The light rail operates from 4:00 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. on weekdays, 4:15 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. on Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays and major holidays. At peak hours on weekdays (from the first trains of the day until 10 a.m., and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.), the BWI–Hunt Valley and Glen Burnie–Fairgrounds routes see 20-minute headways; at other times on weekdays and all day on weekends, there are 30-minute headways on both routes (with Glen Burnie trains traveling all the way to Hunt Valley). The Camden Yards-Penn Station route sees 30-minute headways at all times. Because there is significant overlap on these routes, most of the system sees 10-minute peak and 15-minute off-peak headways; stations in the downtown section between Mt. Royal and Camden Yards are served by six trains an hour off-peak and eight trains an hour at peak. (Paradoxically, the Fairgrounds-Hunt Valley section actually sees longer headways at peak hours.)
Most of the light rail's route is on dedicated
right-of-way that has
grade crossings
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.)
* A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...
equipped with
crossing gates
A bar, post, pole, beam, or boom gate, also known as a boom or a boom barrier, is a beam or bar on a pivot used as a gate. The boom is lowered to block vehicular or pedestrian access through a controlled point or raised to permit such traffic. ...
. The remainder of the route in downtown Baltimore between Camden Station and Mt. Royal uses
shared right of way on Howard Street, where trains mix with automobile traffic and their movement is controlled by traffic signals. In 2007, a transit signal priority system was implemented on this section, resulting in time savings of 25%. From south of Falls Road to North Avenue, the light rail runs parallel to the
Jones Falls Expressway
Interstate 83 (I-83) is an Interstate Highway located in the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania in the Eastern United States. Its southern terminus is at a signalized intersection with Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland; its northern ...
, and from Camden Yards to north of Westport, it parallels
Interstate 395. North of Falls Road and south of Westport, it follows its own path towards its respective termini.
The Camden Yards-Penn Station route has been suspended since September 2019, and replaced by a bus bridge. When announcing this suspension, the MTA attributed it to a lack of available operators. However, schedules printed by the MTA have since attributed the continued suspension to system maintenance and recently.
Fares and transit connections
MTA fares are identical for the Metro SubwayLink, Light RailLink, and local buses: a one-way trip costs $2.00. Daily, weekly, and monthly unlimited-ride passes are also available that are good on all three transit modes. A passenger with a one-way ticket can change Light RailLink trains if necessary to complete their journey, the only instance of a one-way MTA ticket being good for a ride on more than one vehicle, but transferring to a bus or the Metro requires a new one-way fare or a pass. Automated ticket vending machines that sell tickets and passes are available at all Light RailLink stations.
The Light RailLink's ticketing is based on a
proof-of-payment
Proof-of-payment (POP) or proof-of-fare (POF) is an honor-based fare collection system used on many public transportation systems. Instead of checking each passenger as they enter a fare control zone, passengers are required to carry a paper ...
system. Passengers must have a ticket or pass before boarding.
Maryland Transit Administration Police officers ride some trains and randomly check passengers to make sure that they are carrying a valid ticket or pass and can issue
criminal citations for those without one. Civilian Fare Inspectors also conduct ticket checks, alighting those without fare.
Most Light RailLink stations are served by several MTA bus routes and passengers can make platform-to-platform transfers with the MARC Camden Line at Camden Yards and with the MARC Penn Line at Penn Station. There are no cross-platform connections with the Metro SubwayLink. The Lexington Market subway and light rail stations are a block apart and connected only via surface streets.
Ridership
* FY 2011 – 27,595 average weekday; 8,655,209 annual
* FY 2012 – 27,253 average weekday; 8,539,996 annual
* FY 2013 – 27,537 average weekday; 8,647,381 annual
* FY 2014 – 25,183 average weekday; 8,105,743 annual
* FY 2015 - 7,657,256 annual
* FY 2016 - 7,431,060 annual
* FY 2017 - 7,345,442 annual
* FY 2018 - 7,416,504 annual
* FY 2019 - 6,966,072 annual
* FY 2020 - 4,652,718 annual
* FY 2021 - 2,458,661 annual
* FY 2022 - 2,903,523 annual
* FY 2023 - 3,434,185 annual
Rolling stock
Baltimore's Light RailLink vehicles (LRVs) were built by
ABB Traction, the U.S. division of
ABB
ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...
. The initial set was delivered in 1991–1992 as the line was being built; a supplemental order of similar cars built by
AAI Corporation was delivered in 1997, when the extensions came into service.
Baltimore LRVs are larger than traditional
streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
s and those used on San Francisco's
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni's light rail lines saw an aver ...
or Boston's
Green Line. The
articulated cars are long over coupler faces, wide, and high, and can accommodate 85 seated and 91 standing passengers. The cars operate on track. One-, two- and three-car trains are all routinely seen in service. Trains are powered by 750 volt DC from
overhead line
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, Electric multiple unit, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union ...
s via a
pantograph
A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...
, and have a maximum speed of . When delivered, they were the first transit vehicles in the United States to employ A/C propulsion. Each LRV is powered by four motors ( total); the middle truck of three-car trains is unpowered.

As of 2024, the MTA had 53 individual light rail cars. During typical weekday peak-time service, approximately 30 to 35 cars are required; a somewhat higher number of cars are put into service immediately after Orioles and Ravens games. For weekday service, as well as days of Orioles games or events at the
CFG Bank Arena
CFG Bank Arena is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Convention Center on the corner of Baltimore Street and Hopkins Place in downtown Baltimore. With a seating capacity ...
or
Baltimore Convention Center, trains going from Hunt Valley to Cromwell and BWI Airport are generally run with two cars, while three-car trains are put into service for Ravens games and major downtown events. The Penn Station-Camden Yards shuttle is typically operated with one-car trains. The MTA also owns a variety of maintenance of way equipment, which can use diesel power in emergencies.
A mid-life upgrade of the light rail vehicles began in 2013.
[A Strategic Plan to Enhance the Howard Street Corridor](_blank)
Howard Street Steering Committee Recommendations, April 22, 2009 Draft On September 9, 2013, a contract for mid-life overhauls of the light rail vehicles was awarded to
Alstom
Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...
. Five vehicles at a time were sent for rebuilding, involving testing, removal of all interior and exterior components and replacement with new propulsion systems. The overhaul is scheduled for completion in March 2018.
[Maryland selects Alstom for Baltimore light rail overhaul](_blank)
Alstom Press Release, September 9, 2013 The overhauled cars began testing in early 2016. By 2021 the original order of ABB vehicles had their interiors upgrades with security cameras, LED lighting, and
LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...
screens that show the train's position along the line.
In February 2024, the Maryland Transit Administration announced that they had been awarded $213,696,341 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration’s Rail Vehicle Replacement program to replace all 52 aging Light Rail vehicles in its fleet with new, modern railcars.
Future
While there are several plans and proposals to expand the system, none are approved or funded. An independent commission on Baltimore-area transit made a number of suggestions in a 2002 report for new lines and expansions of existing lines. Newer proposals include expanding service on the existing Central Light RailLink line by extending Sunday service via the BaltimoreLink plan, as well as new stations and spurs.
Texas station
There are plans to add an
infill station
An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train ser ...
between the existing Timonium and Warren Road stations in Texas,
Cockeysville. An island was built at this point on the line in conjunction with the 2005 double-tracking work to provide a turn-back point for trains not going all the way to Hunt Valley, which could be converted into a station at a later date.
Stockholm Street station
In the 2015 South Baltimore Gateway Masterplan, the city of Baltimore proposed a new light rail stop along the Central Light RailLink line at Stockholm Street, in between Hamburg Street and
Westport. The new station would be located near a proposed new
MARC station west of Russell Street, and would provide additional access to the
Baltimore Greyhound Bus Terminal, the
Horseshoe Casino, and new businesses in the Carroll-Camden Industrial Area.
Port Covington extension
In January 2016, plans were unveiled by Sagamore Development Company, owned by
Under Armour
Under Armour, Inc. is an American sportswear company that manufactures footwear and clothing, apparel headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
History 20th century
Under Armour was founded on September 25, 1996, by Kevin Plank, a ...
CEO
Kevin Plank, regarding the redevelopment of
Port Covington in
South Baltimore. The new plan for Port Covington calls for two proposed new light rail stations, along with new residential and commercial development. The first station would be located west of Hanover Street, and the other would be located at the intersection of East McComas Street and East Cromwell Street, just south of
Federal Hill. This proposed extension would create a new spur from the Central Light RailLink line by crossing the Middle Branch of the
Patapsco River
The Patapsco River ( ) mainstem is a river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal portion forms the harbor for the city of Baltimore. With its South Branch, the Patapsco forms the northern border of Howar ...
south of
Interstate 95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
.
Low floor vehicles
The MTA plans to transition the system from high floor vehicles to
low floor LRVs and requested information from low-floor LRV vendors in January 2023.
Red Line
The
Red Line is a planned , 19-station light rail line traveling east–west that would intersect with the existing Light RailLink downtown;
this would be a separate service, with no track connection to the existing Light RailLink, though there would be opportunities for transfer between the two in the vicinity of
University Center / Baltimore Street. The line would operate in a total of of tunnels through the downtown area (and along Cooks Lane), with the majority of the rest of the system operating at-grade and just a few aerial sections, as well as in the median of the former
Interstate 170 freeway. The Red Line was cancelled by Governor
Larry Hogan
Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr. (born May 25, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 62nd governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party and son of three-term U.S. representative Lawrence Hogan, he served as co-ch ...
, who had campaigned against it in the
2014 Maryland gubernatorial election, on June 25, 2015.
Wes Moore
Westley Watende Omari Moore (born October 15, 1978) is an American politician, businessman, author, and former U.S. Army officer serving as the 63rd governor of Maryland since 2023.
Moore was born in Maryland and raised primarily in New York. ...
, his successor, indicated his intention to revive it shortly after
being elected, and formally announced the return of the project in a ceremony with Baltimore mayor
Brandon Scott
Brandon Maurice Scott (born April 8, 1984) is an American politician serving as the Mayor of Baltimore, mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, since 2020. He was the president of the Baltimore City Council from 2019 to 2020, having been elected to the p ...
on June 15, 2023.
See also
*
Baltimore Metro SubwayLink
*
List of Baltimore Light RailLink stations
*
Light rail in the United States
*
List of United States light rail systems by ridership
The following is a list of all light rail systems in the United States. Also included are some of the urban tram, streetcar/trolley systems that provide regular public transit service (operating year-round and at least five days per week), ones w ...
*
List of tram and light rail transit systems
The following is a list of cities that have current tram/streetcar (including heritage trams/heritage streetcars), or light rail systems as part of their regular public transit systems. In other words, this list only includes systems which ...
*
List of rail transit systems in the United States
References
External links
Light RailLink at MTA Maryland
{{authority control
BWI
Light rail in Maryland
Maryland Transit Administration
Railway lines opened in 1992
1992 establishments in Maryland
750 V DC railway electrification