Posted on 06/25/2015 4:03:25 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Dashing Baltimore's hopes for an east-west light rail line, Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday that he will not build the $2.9 billion Red Line.
"The current proposal makes no sense whatsoever," the governor told a State House news conference.
But Hogan, making his first appearance since announcing Monday he has cancer, gave mass transit advocates a limited victory by giving the green light to construction of a slimmed-down version of the Purple Line light rail project in the Washington suburbs.
During his campaign last year, Hogan had said the state could not afford either project. After he took office, however, he ordered Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn to evaluate both and make a recommendation on whether to proceed.
By deciding not to go ahead with the Red Line, the Republican governor is dealing a major blow to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who had hoped that construction of the light rail project across Baltimore would bring a windfall in terms of jobs and economic development.
Rawlings-Blake released a statement saying she was "disheatened' by the Red Line decision.
"Although the governor has promised to support economic growth in Baltimore, he cancelled a project that would have expanded economic development, created thousands of jobs, increased access to thousands more, and offered residents better health care, childcare, and educational opportunities," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
And he told Montgomery and Prince George’s county, where the line will be built to pony up more money to pay for it, since they will get the benefits. Those two county supervisors will be screaming about the injustice of not taking money from the rest of the state for their benefit, as the Dems have done for 5 decades.
‘he cancelled a project that would have expanded economic development, created thousands of jobs, increased access to thousands more, and offered residents better health care, childcare, and educational opportunities,” she said.’
Oh yes, it would be the boon of everything for everyone!
Just like those ridiculous snake-oil supplement ads - if it claims to be the solution to everything, it probably isn’t.
Personally I like the idea of more E-W lines because just a very long N-S line makes no sense. The “subway” doesn’t even actually meet up with the “light rail”, so it doesn’t really count.
Planning was very bad in Baltimore for mass transit. DC is a completely different story.
Not planning, as both cities had mass transit systems planned at about the same time (mid 60's to early 70's). It is implementation, DC built the designed system as a system, Baltimore only built part of one subway line initially, then 20 years later built the light rail along another planned route from the original master plan, but did not tie it into the subway line. Thus today DC is debating expanding their system, while Baltimore is still arguing about building another line from the master plan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.