BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore is less than halfway through a full shutdown of the subway system, and students say it’s taking a serious toll on their education.

Some students say the transportation tangle is making them late for class.

WJZ’s Kimberly Eiten talked to a lot of kids who rely on the subway to get to and from school every day, and every one of them said they’re now choosing to walk until the system is running again.

The gates are up, and so are the frustrations of some of the subway’s youngest riders.

Students who rely on the system to get to class.

“This is making me more late because it makes traveling harder,” said one student.

A harder, and hardly hasty commute.

Less than two weeks ago, Maryland Transit Administration announced an emergency shutdown. This happened with just 24 hours notice after safety inspections showed track repairs scheduled for summer can’t wait.

Now, the 17,000 daily customers of Baltimore’s Metro Subwaylink are forced to ride the so-called “bus bridge” through at least mid-March.

The problem is the buses aren’t big enough.

“The new shuttles that they got, they don’t be enough space on the buses, and they all packed,” said student Dontay Mills. “They be riding past us in the morning, so I had to walk to try not be late.”

Mills says he’d rather walk the 25 minutes to and from Frederick Douglass High School than wait and wish on a charter bus that might not stop.

A temporary solution that is paid for by the state, but kids say the $2.2 million work around isn’t working for them.

“Making me more late to school, and stuff like that,” Mills added.

WJZ reached out to MTA administrators Thursday, but they chose not to comment on this story.

Earlier this week, MTA confirmed it knew for more than a year that the Metro rails violated safety standards before the shutdown.

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