Plan for Metro to BWI Gaining Momentum

The Washington Post ^ | Monday, April 10, 2006 | Amit R. Paley

[MinorityRepublican]

As Virginia moves closer to extending Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, Maryland officials are ramping up plans and support for their own multibillion-dollar extension to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The General Assembly late last month approved a $1 million study of the proposed 20-mile extension of the Green Line, the latest sign that the project -- long considered a pie-in-the-sky transit wish -- has increasingly become a top priority for key transportation planners in Annapolis.

"Clearly, we're racing the clock, because they are going to start building that rail up to Dulles," said Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr. (D-Prince George's), a strong proponent of the project. "If we don't connect Metro to BWI, we're not going to remain competitive."

Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said the project is also needed to handle the explosive growth at Fort Meade called for by the Pentagon's base realignment plan. Some officials said the plan will bring as many as 50,000 residents to the area.

"You don't want the growth to occur and then to try to catch up with it. That ties your hands," Flanagan said. "We need to anticipate growth that we know is going to occur and plan the subway and the growth together so that they work in unison."

The project would fulfill a decades-old goal of connecting the transit systems in Washington and Baltimore, which are quickly merging into one metropolitan area.

[MinorityRepublican]

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[MinorityRepublican]

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