In February, the Maryland Transit Administration shut down Baltimore’s entire subway system for emergency repairs. In August, an independent review noted the MTA’s years of miscommunication and inadequate use of technology as the reason for the Subway Link shutdown. Instead of tackling these fundamental problems, however, MTA officials responded by announcing plans to spend almost another $1 billion to upgrade the rails.
MTA’s plans for this expensive endeavor are especially disconcerting because the agency already spent an estimated $1.5 million of public money to repair the tracks in February. Furthermore, Baltimore lawmakers used the shutdown as an excuse to pass legislation mandating a 4.4 percent increase in MTA’s $1.6 billion budget starting in 2019.
Despite these costs, Maryland Democrats blame “inadequate” funding and the Hogan administration for the shutdown. Jim Shea, a Democratic candidate who was seeking to challenge Gov. Larry Hogan at the time, even argued that transportation secretary Pete K. Rahn should resign.
However, blaming Republicans and wasting more public money will not fix the Subway Link. MTA’s problems extend back many years before Gov. Hogan took office. In general, government ownership of infrastructure such as bus and rails comes with automatic assumption of taxpayer bailouts when problems arise, which increases the frequency that problems do arise.
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