WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bowing to pressure from citizen groups and local politicians, the Maryland Transit Administration has scrapped two possible routes for a high-speed train between Baltimore and Washington, including one that would have run through several North County residential neighborhoods, the Washington Post reports.
The announcement last week means that the agency is focusing solely on a route that runs along the existing Amtrak rail line in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties.
Even so, Anne Arundel County Council member Pamela G. Beidle (D-Linthicum) said she would continue to fight the proposal.
“My favorite option is still the no-build option,” she said. “I don’t think this is a good project.”
The Washington-Baltimore region is competing with Pittsburgh for almost $1 billion in federal money to build the nation’s first maglev train system. Maglev, which is short for magnetic levitation, is an electromagnetic force that can propel trains as fast as 310 mph. That’s twice as fast as Amtrak’s Acela Express, the nation’s fastest passenger train.
Advocates say the environmentally friendly maglev system will do nothing less than revolutionize the way people travel. The trip between Baltimore and Washington, with a stop at Baltimore Washington International Airport, would take less than 20 minutes, and the train would travel as fast as 240 mph. (Officials are also considering a stop along the Capital Beltway in New Carrollton.)
But critics say maglev is a prohibitively expensive form of transportation for commuters that would require an entirely new infrastructure. One-way tickets would cost about $26, compared with $5.75 for the MARC train. Local residents also argued strongly that building the train would devastate neighborhoods. Those who live in Linthicum and other North County neighborhoods vehemently protested the proposed routes at MTA meetings.
Their opposition apparently convinced the MTA to eliminate the proposed routes along Interstate 95 and along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
“I think they were the two worst routes in terms of impacting a lot of people and historical and fragile sites,” said Del. Shane Pendergrass (D-Howard). “I also think the citizens in the community made their voices heard.”
Del. Frank S. Turner (D-Howard) who had written a letter to Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) decrying the project, said that settling on the route along the Amtrak line moves state and local officials to an expensive question: Should they spend the estimated $500 million to bring maglev to the region?
“To me, that’s a real legitimate concern,” he said. “How are we going to use our resources? I’m very concerned that we have some more immediate problems that we need to address.”
The 40-mile system between Washington and Baltimore is expected to cost between $3.5 and $4 billion. If the area wins the project, the federal government would pay $950 million, local and state governments would pay $500 million and the rest would come from bonds paid back with fare revenue.
Critics have said that is too expensive — about $100 million a mile — and that the state’s limited resources should go toward improving existing transportation, such as the Amtrak and MARC trains that already run between the two cities.
Those criticisms are shortsighted, advocates have said. Maglev would be capable of shooting passengers up the East Coast in futuristic trains that use electromagnetic forces to float over a single rail. A trip from Washington to New York would take less than two hours, officials said.
And local proponents, including Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley (D), said the line could boost the region’s chances of hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics.
This fall, the MTA is expected to submit a proposal to the federal government. A decision about which region gets the grant money is expected by next year.