MTA Maryland Route 15
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Route 15 is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore, Maryland, United States and its suburbs. It currently runs from Security Square Mall, Westview Mall, or Windsor Hills, or Walbrook Junction (all in West Baltimore or Baltimore County) through downtown Baltimore and northeast to Overlea, with selected trips to White Marsh, and selected peak hour express trips to Perry Hall. The main roads along which it operates include Security Boulevard, Windsor Mill Road, Edmondson Avenue, Saratoga Street, Gay Street, and Belair Road.
The bus route is the successor to the 4 Edmondson Avenue and 15 Gay Street streetcar lines.
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[edit] History
Route 15 is the successor to two streetcar lines, numbered in 1899: the west half of Route 4 on Bloomingdale Road and Edmondson Avenue and the east half of the original Route 15 on Gay Street and Belair Road.
The Baltimore City Passenger Railway opened its Gay Street Line to Boundary Avenue (now North Avenue) on December 11, 1861, and through-routed it with the Baltimore Street Line to West Baltimore (now part of Route 20) as the Red Line. The line was equipped with cable traction on July 23, 1893,[1][2] and electrified in 1899.[1]. An extension along Belair Road was built by the Central Passenger Railway in the late 1890s, branching off their Preston Street Line via Milton Avenue, and the Baltimore, Gardenville and Bel Air Electric Railway later opened an extension to Overlea.[citation needed]
The North Baltimore Passenger Railway (later part of the Baltimore Traction Company) through-routed its Edmondson Avenue Line and Monument Street Line (now part of Route 35, no relationship to the earlier Route 35 on the west side that was absorbed by Route 15 in 1966). An extension of the Edmondson Avenue Line was built north along Poplar Grove Street and Bloomingdale Road to Walbrook by the Baltimore and Powhatan Railway and west along Windsor Mill Road by the Gwynn Falls Railway. It was electrified in 1894.[citation needed]
The numbers 15 and 4 were assigned to the two routes in 1899. It was not until December 31, 1935 that Route 4 was truncated to downtown, and the portion on Monument Street became part of Route 6. Route 15 was split on May 9, 1948, when the Route 20 bus replaced both the Edmondson Avenue streetcar and the old Route 20 streetcar to Point Breeze. Route 4 was absorbed by Route 15 on September 18, 1954, and on November 2, 1963 it was replaced by buses.
In 1966, Route 15 absorbed Route 35, which operated from Walbrook Junction to Lorraine. The new full route of the line ran from Lorraine to Overlea. Later expansions were made into the suburbs to accommodate future development.
In 1973, a new Route 15A was formed that provided express service between Kingsville and downtown along Belair Road. This line, in 1991, was renamed to Route 43, which also provided service to White Marsh. Overall, service on Belair Road in Baltimore County was always very limited. But in 1992, service on Route 43 line was provided as express trips on Route 15. The White Marsh branch was initially provided on Route 66 until that line was eliminated 7 months later, at which time a White Marsh branch was formed on Route 15.
In 1998, due to low ridership, Kingsville service was shortened to Perry Hall, and reduced to just seven trips daily on weekdays.
In 2003, due to an anticipated bridge closure, Route 15 was modified in the Windsor Hills area. Buses, instead of operating through the Windsor Hills community, were routed more directly on Windsor Mill Road, bypassing this area. A new Route 68 was formed to provide shuttle service between Walbrook Junction and Windsor Hills.
In 2005, as part of the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative, a comprehensive overhaul plan for the region's transit system, MTA proposed to modify the routing of both routes 15 and 68. The plan for Route 15 would have had the line operating from Overlea to Sinai Hospital via the current route from Overlea to Walbrook Junction, then via the route of Route 91 to Sinai. Route 68 would have been modified to operated between the Mondawmin Metro Subway Station and Security Square Mall along Windsor Mill Road, replaces Route 15 service west of Walbrook Junction, and no service would have been provided north of Overlea. After a public outcry, all these plans were scratched, and no further proposals have been made for Routes 15 or 68.
In June 2007, following the reopening of the Forest Park bridge, Route 68 was merged back into Route 15, and Route 15 returned to its old route through Windsor Hills on all trips west of Walbrook Junction. In addition, White Marsh service on weekdays and Saturdays was increased to one bus an hour.
[edit] Incidents on Route 15 buses
On December 26, 2007, a 14-year-old boy was shot while riding a #15 bus on Poplar Grove. This was the fifth in a series of violent crimes that occurred on MTA buses in December 2007[3].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Clayton Coleman Hall, Baltimore: Its History and Its People, Lewis Historical Publishing Company (1912), pp. 279, 545-551
- ^ Baltimore City Passenger Railway Co. advertisement at the end of Clarence H. Forrest, Official History of the Fire Department of the City of Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins (1898)
- ^ MTA calls gunfire on bus 1st case in '07 - baltimoresun.com
[edit] External links
- Route 15 schedulePDF (932 KiB)
