MTA improves Howard Street Light Rail Station

Howard Street is widely considered the biggest failure of the existing "legacy light rail" system in Baltimore. Whenever the proposed new Red Line is discussed (i.e. an extension of the current light rail system), somebody will bring up Howard Street, how slow the trains move there, how they ruined Howard Street, how dead it is there or any other complaint what doesn't work there.

The truth is, that Howard Street, once the heart of the Baltimore retail district (with four department stores on the corners of Lexington and Howard Streets), has fallen on very hard times for a very long time. The last department store, Hechts, closed in 1989, before the new Light Rail line opened there. (Full disclosure: I worked on the original light rail design).

Hechts, however, also points to the success of the revitalization Howard Street, as slow and as gradual it might be. For quite some time now the Hechts building has been converted to the "Atrium" building with apartments and first floor shops, just as suggested for successful urban revitalization! South of  Lexington all the way to Pratt Street, there are, in fact, hardly any vacant stores, and the Centerpoint project between Fayette and Baltimore Streets is another thriving mixed use complex. North of Lexington Street, success is much more sparse, though, so sparse, that the word "success" wouldn't even come to mind.

This picture from the time when the light rail system was still new shows the big arches
and shows the northbound station (blue shelter) on the right side. The southbound train is
headed for the station one block to the south below the edge of the picture

The truth is also, that outside the DC area, Howard Street  is the corridor with the most transit service in the State. Metro (yes Baltimore has a subway!) Light Rail and buses come together here and (almost) form a hub. That is where the second volley of criticism hits: The what is perceived as "poor" connection between the light rail line and the subway which are within one (!) block of each other. Yet, one cannot see one station from the other, one has to walk blind to a corner and then, to confuse the rider further, the light rail southbound and the northbound stops are in two different directions! ArchPlan was assigned several times to work on plans to improve both visibility and appearance of both, metro and light rail. A major overhaul of the metro entrance was completed in 2010. But the offset light rail station remained, the result of pleasing merachants at the time and trying to shoehorn light rail, buses and one continuous lane of traffic into the Howard Street transit mall. In fact, if Howard Street had been "ruined" by transit at all, it was the ill fated bus transit mall that did it. Decorated with huge vaulted shelters, many "candy cane" pedestrian street lights and two gigantic arches, this transit mall proved to be the nail in the Howard Street coffin.

Back in the mid eighties, when the light rail system was envisioned by "do it now!" Governor Willy Don Schaefer as the transit access for Camden Yards, it was already too late for Howard Street and the timid infusion of one northbound lane for cars could not save it.

The large dead-zone of Howard Street is an ongoing thorn in the otherwise promising renaissance of Baltimore. In 2009 the Maryland Department of Transportation, aware of Howard Street as a potential  "Transit Oriented Development" opportunity, commissioned a study with the urban design consultant firms of Zimmer Gunsul and Frasca (architectural designer of the hugely successful light rail system in Portland, OR),  Cambridge Systematics (Economics) and Kittelson (Transportation). (Several of the below rendered images are taken from the 2009 report). The study included many ideas, suggestions and recommendations but took the way of so  many other Westside plans, it got stuck and was ultimately stranded by the recession.

However, one of the short-term recommendations is now finally being realized: The re-alignment of the "Lexington Street" light rail station. Per plan the southbound stop will be moved one block up to be placed right across from the northbound stop. Both will have new shelters and the big steel structures that once supported the big arches will be dismantled.

Nobody expects at this point, that one thing alone can bring Howard Street "back". However, incremental steps are important and this improved layout for the "intermodal" light rail station will be certainly welcomed by many.

ZGF rendering of the refurbished station and new shelter

New shelter on the northbound side is replacing the previous adapted "Howard Street Shelter"

the time for those large gateways that once were arches has come (see the support  pole that is fenced in)

ZGF rendering: View of the full block between Lexington and Saratoga Streets with
northbound and southbound stations in the same block

A new "highblock" shows that the relocated southbound station will be now directly across from the northbound station