Baltimore City Red Line coordinator Danyell Diggs also blamed federal officials for the loss of funds."This is just one final anti-transit action by the Bush administration on its way out the door," said Diggs in an e-mail.
"We are looking forward to January 20 and a president who values transit as a means of strengthening communities." Milkulski spokesman Cassie Harvey said FTA officials decided to redistribute the funds outside Maryland after Congress failed to re-authorize New Starts, a federal program that funds mass transit projects nationwide.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Before You Walk Out the Door
I'm not sure who to believe on this one, but this seems like something the FTA could do. Now it's also the fault of Maryland if they didn't file paperwork necessary, but it seems like paperwork shouldn't stop anyone from getting funding. Though I'm not sure exactly how planning earmarks work with the FTA.
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6 comments:
Hello!! $1.6 billion for a mere 10-12 miles of track -- most of which would run in a highway median already reserved for transit ROW. If canceling this project helps ensure more cost-effective ones get built, then the FTA did the right thing.
"12-mile light rail of rapid bus transit system"
brilliant.
This is dogs**t! Baltimore needs a coherent rail system and it needed it 30 years ago! Baltimore is a centralized, walkable, old east coast port city. It's not some sprawl-ville in the so-called sunbelt. Its land use and infrastructure is built around urban mass transit. The city has never recovered from when the Highway Lobby ripped out the streetcars in 1960.
If one little light rail line can cause densification and walkablity in a sprawl-ville like Charlotte, imagine what a whole system can do for a place that is already inherently walkable. This is a joke.
Baltimore should have a full regional Metro. It's a major city and is walkable. There's a reason why it was one of the epicenters of the freeway fights in the 1960's, '70s and '80s. No one wanted their walkable neighborhoods to be bulldozed for a freeway for suburbanites. However, our national obsession with roads and cars has shortchanged our great major cities. Consequently, places like Baltimore and Philadelphia, places that are major economic hubs in our nation are shortchanged in favor of sprawl-villes. This action is just another pot-shot by the pro-highway lobby Bush Administration against our major centers of life and culture and economic activity.
This needs to stop. We need to stop destroying our cities. They're the best we have. They create the wealth in our nation.
Baltimore has been revitalizing in pockets. It's no coincidence that the pockets that aren't revitalizing are also the ones that are least car accessible. They were built around streetcars and walkability. You rip out the transportation infrastructure and low and behold... property values drop. This project is an attempt to reconnect a lot of those sections of the city that have been isolated. It will come back.
when did the red line become BRT? i thought it was most likely going to be LRT
i know this line would have a fair bit of tunneling including a downtown subway, hence the higher cost.
i agree its a real shame the baltimore transit system is so underdeveloped for a city like baltimore.
It was originally planned as a subway. That's what it should be. Cavan is right, the region should have a rapid transit.
it sucks to hear this, especially on the same day that I learned I was accepted to Hopkins School of Medicine.
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