In These Times: The Future of Transit

[marmar]

The Future of Transit
Public transportation needs massive investment. Will the Obama administration step up?

By Adam Doster and Kate Sheppard


More than 2.5 million people live in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area and most never step foot on public transit. The city’s bus system is slow and inefficient, and the region supports only two rail lines, a 15.5-mile light rail route that traverses the city from north to south and a heavy rail metro track that runs from the city center to the northwestern suburbs. Both lines serve only a combined 80,000 riders daily. Baltimoreans may not prefer driving, but they have little choice.

That’s why local mass transit advocates were thrilled in 2002 when a state advisory committee unveiled the Baltimore Region Rail System Plan, an ambitious proposal that called for the construction of six lines extending more than 109 miles. First on tap was the Red Line, a $1 billion high-capacity east-west rail corridor that would connect with the existing train routes and serve 250,000 people who reside in some of the city’s most densely populated but underserved neighborhoods.

“There could be massive economic reinvestment in those areas, which is badly needed,” says Stuart Sirota, a regional planner who helped develop the 2002 plan.

But the project has languished since its inception, stuck under multiyear environmental studies (standard practice for new infrastructure projects), a Republican governor unfriendly to transit expansion and a dearth of federal funds. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4262/the_future_of_transit

[nxylas]

1. What a great article

A shame it isn't in a more widely read publication.