LocalLink 57 is a bus route operated by the
Maryland Transit Administration
The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is a state-operated mass transit administration in Maryland, and is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation. The MTA operates a comprehensive transit system throughout the Baltimore-Washingt ...
in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. The line, which serves the
Belair-Edison area, is the oldest shuttle-like bus route in Baltimore, dating back to the 1940s. It operates in a similar circular fashion from its lone layover point, the intersection of
Erdman Avenue and
Belair Road. Its routing serves the communities of
Mannasota and
Mayfield and
Herring Run Park
The Herring Run is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Back River located in Baltimore, Maryland.
Geography
The watershed has its head ...
. It was first known as Route U from 1940 to 1948. It became
counterclockwise
Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite ...
only in 1992 in order to save costs and simplify service, then operating consistently every 20 minutes during all its hours.
[MTA June 1992 schedule changes] Service on a few one-way streets along the route were discontinued as a result.
In 1997, service was shifted to Bowley's Lane in order to provide a connection to
Route 33. In 2004, weekend service was modified to serve the Parkside and Erdman shopping centers. These trips are identified in the schedule as the ''red route''. As a result, intervals on weekends were reduced to one bus every 40 minutes. On April 2, 2007, Route 50 started to provide service on selected trips to the Claremont Senior Home. In early 2010, schedule change "reloaded" the route. These new changes meant service will be provided to the area shopping centers 7 days a week. The branch to the Claremont Senior Home was ended, since the building was razed for the Orchard Ridge development. The line was also extended to serve the apartments on Moravia Park Drive. The layover was moved from Mayfield Avenue just east of Belair Road to Erdman Avenue just west of Mannasota Ave.
In 2017 under BaltimoreLink, Route 50 was renamed Route 57.
References
{{MTA Maryland bus
Maryland Transit Administration bus routes
1948 establishments in Maryland