Local oversight, more funding of transit is urged
Baltimore’s system one of only a few owned by a state, transportation report says
Baltimore’s public transportation system — its buses, light rail, subway and commuter trains — ought to be under more local control, according to a report released Monday by the Greater Washington Partnership, an organization of CEOs from Baltimore to Richmond focused on promoting the region’s prosperity.
The Capital Region Blueprint for Regional Mobility notes that the Baltimore’s transit system, run by the Maryland Transit Administration, a state agency which reports to the governor, is one of only a few in the country owned and operated by the state, rather than a regional authority or local transportation department. That’s a problem, according to the report, because “state officials are accountable to constituents across Maryland, many of whom do not live in Baltimore and may not share Baltimore’s goals.”
“Under this structure, Baltimore’s public transportation system has not kept pace with repair and service needs or developed a strategy to enhance existing service,” the Greater Washington Partnership wrote. “This governance and funding structure must be reformed … to create a truly regional rapid and reliable transit system in the Baltimore metro area.”
The blueprint, developed over the past 16 months, incorporates proposals from stakeholders across the region and contains high-level transportation recom- mendations for Maryland, Virginia and Washington, focused on connecting the region, improving consumer experience, ensuring equitable access and integrating innovation.
The partnership was established in 2016 by a group of 17 CEOs, including Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels, and T. Rowe Price Group President and CEO Bill Stromberg.
The group’s report recommended specific actions the region could take to strengthen regional transportation. Aside from increased local oversight, some of the Baltimore-specific actions include:
Integrating the MTA’s MARC commuter train with Washington’s Virginia Railway Express (VRE) train.
Renovating the Baltimore & Potomac (B&P) Tunnel.
Redeveloping Baltimore’s Penn Station. Completing the Baltimore Greenway Trails Network.
Increasing the speed and reliability of Baltimore’s transit system, while establishing a bold vision for an expanded system.
The MTAwelcomed the blueprint, said spokeswoman Veronica Battisti, who pointed to the BaltimoreLink overhaul of the region’s bus routes and the spending planned to bring the Metro Subway, Light Rail and MARC train systems into a state of good repair as examples of investments in the area’s transportation system. She did not respond to a question about local oversight.
Mass transit is among the Baltimore region’s top challenges, the report found. Nearly three-quarters of the people who live in the Baltimore region can get to its roughly 1.4 million jobs within 45 minutes by car, the report said, but public trans- portation only offers access to 6 percent of those jobs within that amount of time.
Battisti said the addition of bus routes to Tradepoint Atlantic and the Mid-Field Cargo Complex at BWI demonstrate the MTA’s focus of creating access to jobs.
The 145-year-old B&P Tunnel costs Amtrak millions of dollars per year due to its deterioration, and its curved path restricts trains to less than 30 mph, delaying MARC passengers, too.
The Maryland Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration completed design plans in March 2017 to straighten the tunnel and expand it to four tracks, but neither the state nor the federal government has put forward money for construction.
Those who drive, too, shoulder some of the burden. Congestion in the region costs Baltimore-area drivers $1,100 annually, and costs D.C. drivers more than $1,800, the highest amount for any metro area in the country, the report said. And the cost could grow, with up to half of all vehicle trip times spent sitting in traffic by 2040, up from 30 percent today.
Maryland is creating a $50 million network of 14 smart signal corridors on heavily traveled state routes, which already has reduced drive times along Harford County routes by 13 percent, the Greater Washington Partnership said.
The regional mobility blueprint does not specifically mention Gov. Larry Hogan’s cancellation of the Red Line, a $2.9 billion east-west Light Rail line, or his plan to spend $9 billion on express toll lanes on the Interstate 495 Capital Beltway, I-270 between Frederick and D.C., and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.