MTA spending $500K to replace Metro signs

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The Maryland Transit Administration is in the process of replacing signage at its subway stops as part of a renovation effort to make the system more user-friendly.

The blue pylons bearing the name of each station have so far been placed at the Charles Center, Shot Tower/Market Place and Mondawmin stops with hopes of installing them at all subway stops within the next two years, said MTA spokeswoman Jo Greene. The new signs will feature updated maps of each station’s neighborhood and other nearby public transportation in an effort to both make the stops more identifiable and to help passengers more easily navigate the MTA system.

“We’ve seen a lot of people using the signs so far,” Greene said. “It’s a station marker but it’s also a source of information.”

The construction of the signs cost $50,000 for the Charles Center stop and $40,000 for Shot Tower, with costs expected to range between these numbers for each of the 10 additional subway stops, Greene said, bringing total costs to about $500,000.

“We plan to extend the signs to every stop as soon as funds become available,” she said. “Hopefully that’s within the next two years.”

Nate Payer, vice president of the Transit Riders Action Council, an advocacy group for voicing the concerns of MTA passengers, said he believes this is money well spent in the maintenance of the MTA’s infrastructure.

“The previous pole was just falling apart. There’s always been some degree of deferred maintenance over the years with the MTA because of budget cuts,” Payer said. “But things have a life cycle. The Charles Center station opened 28 years ago. It’s perfectly normal that they would have to do this and I think it’s certainly an appropriate use of money.”

The signs had not been replaced since the stations originally opened, Greene said.

Edward Cohen, a former president of TRAC, said the new signs are a much-needed improvement in helping to make the subway stations more visible.

“The visibility of the signage in the past was not good. It was way too small,” Cohen said. “I’d say about half of the people in Baltimore don’t even know we have a subway system.”

Despite these efforts, many passengers said they had not noticed the new signs.

While Jarmickia Minggie of Baltimore was one of these passengers, she said she thought they were a positive addition to the stations.

“It definitely helps people out with knowing where they’re going,” she said as she waited for a train at Charles Center. “From the outside you couldn’t really tell it’s even a subway stop.”

Reshon Jackson, a Baltimore native and GED student who rides the MTA subway every day, said she believed the signs to be a waste of money.

“We know it’s the subway, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “There’s so much else they could have done. Everything in Baltimore needs money.”

For Enos McKoy, who lives in Baltimore and works for Spirit Cruises in the Inner Harbor, the new signs are a welcome change in making the system more easily navigable.

“In places like New York, there’s a lot of signage so there’s no way to get lost,” he said. “Here I can’t even always tell where my stop is. If you’re not familiar with the area it can be hard to notice the smaller signs.”