ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Annapolis Capital reports that a new multi-jurisdictional agency would be needed to oversee the high-speed magnetic levitation train if Maryland wins the project, according to consultants for the Maryland Transit Administration.
The Maglev agency would use a process known as “quick take” to acquire the land needed for the high speed railway faster than is usually needed in condemnation proceedings, consultant Mark Pollak said.
Under the procedure, the county would pay property owners in a specified area an amount based on a fair market value appraisal. Disputes would be resolved in court.
The problem is that quick take is not legal in Anne Arundel County.
County voters would have to approve the process through a referendum, but that’s failed several times before, said task force member Alan Doelp, president of the North Linthicum Improvement Association.
Just mentioning the concept gave pause to members of the task force examining Maglev’s financing during a meeting Thursday in Annapolis.
“That’s going to be a big stumbling block for this whole thing,” said state Sen. Ed DeGrange, D-Glen Burnie. “I don’t see that getting out of this committee. Even if it came out of this committee, it wouldn’t get out of the General Assembly.”
The General Assembly formed the task force during its last session and charged it submitting a final report by the end of December. The $4 billion Maglev plan, sponsored jointly by the MTA, the Federal Railroad Administration and several local governments, calls for a high-speed magnetic levitation train to run from Baltimore to Washington D.C., with a stop at BWI Airport.
Maryland is competing with Pittsburgh for the project, and the FRA is expected to make its decision next year.
In deciding what kind of agency would be best to oversee Maglev, the consultants considered both existing and new public and private ones, as well as new single- and multi-jurisdictional agencies, Mr. Pollak said.
But they favored the last option because it would gather more support from participating jurisdictions because it would deal solely with Maglev, he said. An example is the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs the Metro system.
The drawback, he said, would be getting both Maryland and the District of Columbia to create the agency.
Del. Ted Sophocleus, D-Linthicum, told the consultants he wants to look closely at revenue estimates.
“I want comparisons of the fare box revenues,” he said. “It concerns me when you say, “the fare box will pay back the investment.’ The first few years, we don’t know what the profit will be.”