We went to the Ravens game last night. When we go to the Ravens games we take light rail into the city. It should be a good way to get there. Free parking. Cheap tickets. A stop right at the stadium. What could possibly go wrong?
I’ve written before about Light Rail Issues and they have not improved. The schedule says on weekdays there are trains every 15 minutes. We arrived at the station at 6:55 last night. There was no train into the city until 7:25. The station signs no longer tell you when the next train is scheduled to arrive. The train tracker on the website no longer works. You are flying blind. Imagine using this system to try to get to work.
We made it to our seats before kick-off but only because we walked quickly and used a side entrance most people don’t know about. The trip home was a little better. The wait for a train was shorter. However, some people missed their stop because the doors in our car wouldn’t open. At the next stop, someone had to use the “call the operator” button to tell him to open our doors. I tweeted last night that I won’t consider Baltimore a real city until they have a mass transit system that actually works.
On top of the train issues come the people issues. Here are some of the things from this trip:
People who got off the train at the stadium and walked very slowly in front of me because they were staring at their phones.
People who still don’t know how to walk through a metal detector without setting it off.
People staring at their phones in line and not noticing it is their turn to go through security.
So many people pushing me to on the walk back to the train that I told my wife the next person who did it was taking a trip over the railing.
A guy who decided it was OK to chain smoke cigars while waiting for the train.
20 something male who pushed past my wife to take the last seat on the train before she could sit down. I was tempted to choose violence at that point.
The people who take the BWI train and exit at our stop to wait for the next Cromwell train and stand in the middle of the platform blocking our way to the steps to our car.
The game was great. I enjoy the game experience. I’m happy to get back to Sunday afternoon games next week. We will have the option of hanging out in the city for a bit until the train crowd dies down and still get home at a reasonable time.
The World's Common Tater 
The game was good…but I totally get the frustration
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This reminds me of my father’s response when I asked if he’d like to go to an Orioles game. He was in his 80s, my mother had recently died, and watching the games was one thing he still liked to do. He looked at me like I was nuts and said, “What? And deal with all those people? No thanks.” Hahahahahaha. You’d never know from this that he spent his entire working life dealing with people, being a people person. They didn’t know that he was actually a closet introvert.
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My only experience with mass transit is BART when I visit my kids in the Bay Area. I can’t tell you the horrors I’ve seen. I’ve had some good experiences, too. One of the worst was when I was going to the airport at rush hour in the morning and we were so stuffed inside like sardines that whenever we got to a stop and the doors opened, people naturally fell outside. Then people waiting outside would jump inside and take their places, leaving the people who got shoved outside to wait and wait for another train.
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My one experience in San Francisco with transit was a public bus debacle that ended with us vetting off the bus and walking to our destination
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