The state's head honcho, Gov. Martin O'Malley, was busy making
transportation news putting his seal of approval on plans for the much
debated Red and Purple Lines. In Baltimore, the Gov has chosen to
pursue federal funding for the proposed east to west Baltimore Red Line
that will be built with limited tunneling. The decision is likely to
receive kudos from political and business leaders and leave
neighborhood activists steaming.
Excerpt: During an appearance at West Baltimore's MARC station,
O'Malley surprised nobody by selecting the plan that has won the
endorsement of Mayor Sheila Dixon, Baltimore County Executive James T.
Smith Jr. and the Greater Baltimore Committee. At the same time, the
governor sought without success to reassure opponents of surface light
rail in their communities that the Red Line would bear little
resemblance to the system that clatters along Howard Street.
"This is not your grandfather's light rail," O'Malley told the crowd of
several hundred at the station, where the MARC system would
interconnect with the Red Line. He promised a system that would be
sleeker and quieter than the existing system, which opened in the early
1990s.
Read the entire Baltimore Sun article
here.
Meanwhile when it comes to commuting from say Baltimore to Rockville,
going east to west across the state, the Gov has opted to use light
rail service for the proposed Purple Line running from New Carrollton
to Bethesda instead of rapid bus transportation.
Excerpt: Light rail, they say, is the right decision, because it can
carry more people and attract more development. It's much better than
the alternative, bus rapid transit, they argue. At the same time,
however, transportation planners are recommending bus rapid transit for
the Corridor Cities Transitway along Interstate 270 and putting
together a massive plan for priority bus corridors throughout the
region, a project they hope to partially fund with federal stimulus
dollars.
Read the entire Washington Business Journal article
here.