Remember the plight of Alisa Bralove-Scherr, who wrote Getting There to describe how she was turned away from Owings Mills station the other morning with no reason being given? She was wondering why, when she moved on to Old Court station to pick up her train, an MTA employee had no idea what was going on.
Well, the MTA now has an explanation -- albeit a lame one.
According to the MTA's Angela White, the MTA was conducting maintenance for 40 minutes Tuesday morning -- just as Bralove-Scherr arrived at Owings Mills for her train. She said the service was restored before 10 a.m. -- but that was too late to help Bralove-Scherr.
White said the station manager and train operator had been informed of the decision to temporarily close the Owings Mills station. She did not know why that information was not passed on to customers.
So why would the MTA be doing maintenance work that would close a station down on a weekday morning? No word as yet.
Anyway, Bralove-Scherr had a very amaiable chat with MTA Administrator Ralign T. Wells, who called her after receiving her letter about the problem.
"He was very nice, apologetic. It sounds like he's really interested in improving things, but he's inherited a system that just doesn't think to communicate," she said.