MTA Maryland Route 19
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Route 19 is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore, Maryland, United States and its suburbs. It currently runs from the State Center Metro Subway Station to the intersection of Harford Road and Northern Parkway, and from there, it splits into two branches. About one half of buses continue operating along Harford Road to the Carney Park-and-Ride just north of the I-695 interchange, and the other half to the intesection of Goucher Boulevard and Taylor Avenue in Towson via Northern, McLean Boulevard, Hillsway, and Taylor. The line serves the communities of Montebello, Hamilton, and Parkville.
The bus route is the successor to the 19 Harford Avenue streetcar line.
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[edit] History
Route 19 was electrified as a streetcar along Harford Road in 1894. In 1952, it was combined with the #31 streetcar, and extended to Garrison Boulevard in West Baltimore. In 1956, the operation was converted to rubber tire buses.
Over the next few decades, the line was expanded. The route was extended along Belvedere Avenue to Sinai Hospital and north to the Carney Park-and-Ride, and branches were formed to Northern Parkway and McLean Boulevard, Walther Avenue, Joppa Heights, and the Hickey School. Also, express trips operated via I-95.
In 1987, Route 19 was split into two lines in order to improve schedule adherence on both sides of town. The new Route 19 ran from State Center north of downtown Baltimore, and the line served the Harford Road corridor.
The new Route 91 operated from Sinai Hospital to City Hall, serving the western half of this route.
During the 1990s, the following changes were made to Route 19:
- The McLean branch was extended to Goucher & Taylor, overlapping with a portion of Route 55. It was also made into a full-time service.
- The Walther Avenue branch was discontinued.
- Express trips via I-95 were discontinued.
[edit] Future
In 2006, as part of the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative, a comprehensive overhaul plan for the region's transit system, MTA proposed to split Route 19 into two separate lines:
- Route 19 would have continued to operate from Carney to State Center, with a minor routing change in the downtown area. All trips would follow this route.
- A new Route 37 would operate from Goucher & Taylor to Cherry Hill via the current route downtown, then via the route of Route 27 the remainder of the route. These two lines would operate on an alternating basis with coordinated schedules between Northern & Harford and downtown Baltimore.
These changes are yet to be implemented, and GBBI was canceled in 2007.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Route 19 schedulePDF (453 KiB)
