The Baltimore Light RailLink (formerly Baltimore Light Rail, also known simply as the "Light Rail") is a light rail system serving Baltimore, Maryland, United States, and its northern and southern suburbs. It is operated by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA Maryland) and runs from Hunt Valley to Glen Burnie, with a spur to BWI Airport.
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, Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad and Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway. 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 routes of the Northern Central Railway, Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway, and Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad.
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 for the Baltimore Orioles. 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 just south of downtown Baltimore. The line ran from Timonium in Baltimore County in the north to Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County 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 than 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 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 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 between the existing Westport and Camden Yards stations. Adjacent to M&T Bank Stadium, it was initially only open during Ravens 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 headways, 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.
The Camden Yards–Penn Station route was suspended in September 2019 and replaced by a bus bridge due to a lack of available operators. Service later resumed, but was again suspended in 2022 due to Amtrak construction at Penn Station. Light rail service to Penn Station resumed in June 2025.
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 headways 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 equipped with crossing gates. 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%.Reflections in Motion 2007 MTA Annual Report (PDF), page 12. Retrieved February 9, 2010. From south of Falls Road to North Avenue, the light rail runs parallel to the Jones Falls Expressway, 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.
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 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 Baltimore Light RailLink Ridership 1995 – present Fiscal Year Average Weekday Ridership Annual Ridership Ref. 1995 5,794,500 1996 20,400 6,747,300 1997 22,500 7,015,700 1998 27,000 8,390,900 1999 29,300 8,796,600 2000 25,600 8,367,500 2001 26,000 8,362,900 2002 26,000 8,331,600 2003 25,600 7,509,800 2004 19,000 4,697,600 2005 2006 6,762,300 2007 31,100 7,085,100 2008 33,600 8,054,100 2009 34,700 8,981,200 2010 36,300 8,371,000 2011 27,200 8,462,300 2012 29,200 8,729,400 2013 26,800 8,588,000 2014 27,100 8,092,300 2015 22,800 6,888,500 2016 7,831,900 2017 23,900 7,353,900 2018 18,400 7,157,000 2019 25,300 6,508,700 2020 8,000 2,803,900 2021 8,500 2,718,100 2022 10,300 3,262,100 2023 12,500 3,546,300 2024 15,200 5,015,500 2025
Key Record high Record low
Rolling stock
Baltimore's Light RailLink vehicles (LRVs) were built by ABB Traction, the U.S. division of ABB. 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 streetcars and those used on San Francisco's Muni Metro 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 lines via a pantograph, 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 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.