Dear Baltimore,
I would like to pay for my rides on your light rail. I’ve noticed your signs saying I should pay and how much the rides cost.
However, there is no place for me to slap my CharmCard or even my SmartCard (’cause in DC we’re a bunch of brainy know-it-alls) on the rail.
One can enter through front, rear and middle doors, and I’ve not seen a card reader at any of these doors.
I’ve even looked for card readers at the station stops, and I haven’t seen nary a one. But I have seen the signs and the ticket dispensers, which is the same machine I can add funds to my CharmCard.
I have asked the few people who I know who live in your lovely city about paying for rides on the Yellow Line, and they don’t know either.
I’m sorry you did not get funds for your Red Line, possibly at the cost of the DC Maryland suburbs getting the Purple Line. If I know one thing, when the Purple Line gets working, it will get some busy lines connected. Now if Virginia would only create a crescent to connect their silver, orange, blue, yellow lines and in my fantasy world, Maryland’s red or green lines, that would be wonderful. But enough about DC.
Your yellow line is great. It connects Penn Station (I tend to walk to another station that’s about 3-4 blocks away) to Camden Yards to BWI (or WMATA’s B30 bus as far as I care). It connects several of your assets, it has value. Is it worth it for you to put in a card reader?
Thanks,
Mari