Thousands of workers in eastern Baltimore County just got a much shorter path to jobs at Tradepoint Atlantic. A new commuter bus route, launched Monday, links park-and-ride lots in White Marsh, Golden Ring and Essex directly to the sprawling logistics complex in Edgemere, cutting commute times by about an hour each way for riders who previously had no direct connection to the site.
The route, designated 411T, is a state-funded, $2 million investment operated by the Maryland Transit Administration, according to WMAR-2 News. It functions as a one-seat loop, meaning riders no longer need to transfer between buses to get from suburban Baltimore County to the employer campuses spread across Tradepoint Atlantic. Before the new service began, workers without personal vehicles often faced trips exceeding 90 minutes because existing routes funneled them through Baltimore City, according to The Baltimore Banner — a bottleneck that persisted even though Tradepoint sits less than 10 miles from White Marsh and Essex.
Maryland Transportation Secretary Katie Thomson said the new route removes a critical barrier for job seekers, noting that transportation can determine whether an opportunity is within reach, per WMAR-2 News. Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier echoed that frustration, saying access to Tradepoint Atlantic has long been a challenge for many residents. “For a long time it's been a real problem to get here for folks that live an hour and a half away,” Klausmeier said, according to the station's report.
A Senator Who Lived the Commute Himself
Baltimore County state Sen. Carl Jackson pushed for the $2 million state funding allocation after working as an Amazon warehouse employee at Tradepoint Atlantic himself, where he experienced the long commute firsthand, the Banner reports. Jackson said the new route is necessary to keep up with regional growth and will help transportation infrastructure keep pace with the pace of hiring at the site, per WMAR-2 News. Roughly 15,000 people currently work at Tradepoint Atlantic, with as many as 8,000 additional workers expected to arrive in the coming years, the station notes.
Route 411T runs 365 days a year, from 5 a.m. until just before 1 a.m., a schedule built around the early-morning, overnight and weekend shifts common at the site's distribution and manufacturing facilities, according to CBS Baltimore. The service connects riders to major employers operating at Tradepoint Atlantic, including Amazon, Under Armour, Floor & Decor, FedEx and Royal Farms, the outlet reports. Riders pay a one-way fare of $4, or can purchase a monthly pass for $136, according to WMAR-2 News; both can be bought digitally through the MTA's CharmPass app, with live arrivals tracked through the MTA Transit app, per CBS Baltimore.
Years in the Making
The new express route builds on earlier, more limited efforts to link workers to Sparrows Point. State transit officials launched LocalLink 63 from Baltimore's Inner Harbor in 2018 and Express BusLink 163 from West Baltimore MARC in 2021, according to CBS Baltimore — both aimed primarily at connecting city residents rather than suburban commuters in eastern Baltimore County. Tradepoint Atlantic itself sits on the former 3,100-acre Bethlehem Steel site, which closed in 2012 after more than a century of steelmaking and has since been redeveloped into a $2.9 billion multimodal logistics center projected to support 17,000 direct and indirect jobs at full buildout, according to The Daily Record.
That growth shows no sign of slowing. Tradepoint Atlantic broke ground in April on a $1 billion, 168-acre container terminal at Coke Point, a joint venture with Terminal Investment Ltd. designed to add 1 million TEU of container capacity to the Port of Baltimore by late 2028, as Hoodline previously reported. MTA Administrator Tony Bridges said the agency will collect and analyze ridership data on Route 411T to evaluate whether to expand express bus service to other corridors in the future, according to the Banner — a decision that could hinge on whether the new route's roughly 30-minute frequency can keep pace with shift-change surges as Tradepoint's workforce keeps expanding.
