I suggest a compromise. Build the southern leg of the Yellow Line to Columbia, and extend the Green Line as far northeast as possible (preferably up to I-95 or the Beltway). Our main focus should be on removing cars from I-95. MTA could offer a shuttle bus service to the Timonium or Mount Washington stations from Towson until funding exists to complete the northern leg of the Yellow Line.

As much as I'd love to take rail transit up to Towson, and as much as I think connecting JHU, Loyola, Goucher, Towson U, etc. to the system would be a boon for the city, I just can't fathom the cost of this line.

We are arguing about single track tunnels and not being able to go underground in Canton for the Red Line. How do they expect to build the Yellow Line? There doesn't appear to be a DEIS or anything, but I can't imagine it being above ground south of Hopkins...and if people think the Canton Opposition is strong, I'd love to see the opinions of Homeland, Roland Park, Guilford, Charles Village, etc.

I think that the plan’s recommendation to prioritize the Yellow line over the Green line extension makes sense. However, I question why a short 1-station extension of the Green line metro subway isn’t considered to connect the busiest MARC line (Penn Line). Such a connection would quickly carry MARC riders from Washington and North of Baltimore straight to Charles Center and Downtown via a transfer at the proposed East Baltimore MARC station. The new connection would greatly increase the utility of the existing transit network and would be relatively inexpensive for a transit project. The existing Metro is only ½ mile from the proposed MARC station and some of the tunnel already exists. Shouldn’t planners consider this short-term alternative? It would go along way towards building a true regional transit network.

This is unbelievably preposterous. The Green Line to White Marsh will offer better service to denser areas, while a Yellow Line to Columbia would offer a long and circuitous route to downtown while by-passing the largest employment center in the state of Maryland, Fort Meade.

Build the Green Line first.

I don't think building an extension to Columbia the way the regional plan has it is the correct way. I agree, it's too circuitous. If anything, build the extension of the Yellow Line north to Towson, and that's it.

I agree also with a short term plan of extending the Green Line to the intersection with the MARC train. There is already a 1/2 mile tunnel with track past the JHH station. All you really need to do is build the station infrastructure.

(I'll stick to commenting on the Green Line for the moment.)

The intersection of the Amtrak-NEC over Broadway in E. Baltimore is not long enough to accomodate a MARC train because of the track curvature and the tunnel entrance, as I understand this from TRAC President Christopher Field (and MARC know-it-all).

The 2002 Rail Plan had a station there, but that indicated a tranfer between the Metro Green Line and the Purple Line--presumably some higher frequency LRT type service that would make additional stops. I don't believe it was intended for MARC.

Nate Payer
TRAC

The 2002 study is ambiguous about what mode the Baltimore Purple line would be, but my impression was enhanced MARC service. The MARC Growth and Investment Plan seemed to confirm that in the long-range planning section which calls for “Metro like” service through Baltimore.
Nonetheless, I think a direct MARC –Metro Subway connection would dramatically alter and improve the function of both systems. The other location for such a transfer is at State Center, also identified in the MARC growth plan, but not mentioned in this study even while State Center TOD is listed as a high priority. Downtown and Northwest Baltimore would be a 1-transfer ride from Washington and a major transit interchange would be created below the largest planned TOD development. The connection should be included in plans to replace the B&P railroad tunnels. Failure to include the connection would be a major missed opportunity.

sgtharry,

I'm intrigued by the idea of a connection at State Center, esp with the incoming TOD that might happen there.

How would that work?

The alignment is JHU to Waverly to Cold Spring to Belvedere Sq. which leads me to believe they propose a Greenmount/York alignment and not a Charles St./St. Paul alignment largely reducing the problems that Homeland, Roland Park, Guilford would cause. The negative of that is you miss the front doorstep of Loyola/Notre Dame but you get to through denser areas with a lot more potential for ridership. I also don't think Charles village will be that big of a problem. I also imagine 33rd St. (with its median) as being an ideal place to cut east. Personally, I think that alignment is pretty good. It will connect Baltimore to Towson and reverse creating a win-win of economic benefit. I also think the north side of the Yellow line is FAR more important than connecting it to Columbia mall. It's also about half of the distance and even though you don't need to build new line for half of it going south, people are less likely to take the longer trip.

I do agree with the connection to the MARC station for the Green line but I don't think the primary purpose of light rail is to get people off of I-95 (that's the MARC expansion plan you can read on the MTA website). The purpose is to get city (and regional) residents so that they don't have to be dependent on cars while bringing vitality between important parts of the city and region. Towson is fairly close to the center, it would connect three important colleges, it would bring people without cars to two of our museums (BMA and Walter's) not to mention a chance to help breathe some extra life into Belvedere Sq. (think Senator) and connect the beautiful neighborhood of Rodger's Forge which already has pretty good density for being so far from the core to a transit line. And of course by the Beltway you have great park and ride opportunities and connections to Hunt Valley.