(The following story appeared on the Baltimore Sun website on May 17, 2011.)
BALTIMORE, Md. — As Elkridge residents try to block a large CSX rail cargo transfer facility from their neighborhood, Howard County Council members are moving to get their own local environmental analysis of two possible county sites for the $150 million project.
Elkridge residents have mounted a strong campaign to take one site at Hanover and Race roads in their community off the list because there are 365 homes within a quarter mile of the site along the main Camden line railroad tracks. They contend that noise, heavy trucks and idling trains will destroy their peace and reduce home values, while the other Howard site in Jessup has only 21 homes nearby and an Arundel site across the tracks next to a state prison has none.
State transportation and railroad officials say the 70-acre station would boost Baltimore’s port by allowing huge cargo shipping containers to be stacked two-high on rail cars headed west. Double stacking can’t be done at the port itself because the loaded rail cars won’t fit through Baltimore’s 19th-Century Howard Street rail tunnel.
Full story: Baltimore Sun