Maglev fails to get $1.7 billion in U.S. funding
At the same the Obama administration allocated $70 million to two Maryland rail projects last week, it also turned thumbs-down on the city's effort to gain $1.7 billion in funding for the long-discussed, semi-dormant proposed Maglev train line between Baltimore and Washington.
The Maryland Department of Transportation had put the request in at the behest of the Baltimore city administration -- hardly a ringing endorsement. Robert Kulat, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said a statutory impediment to Maryland spending any money of its own on Maglev was a significant impediment to federal approval.
Maglev supporters can take some comfort in the fact the Federal Railroad Administration did not find the project ineligible. The FRA classified it a a project that was "not ready" for funding. So the grant application could return another day. Until then, Maryland will have to content itself with $60 million for the engineering work on a new Amtrak runnel in Baltimore to replace the 1873 Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel and $10 million toward a new BWI train station.
Categories: Amtrak/intercity railroads
Comments
The FRA also declined to fund a similar project in Pittsburgh that would have run from the airport to downtown Pittsburgh and then onward to other suburbs. The FRA realizes that using a unique maglev system that would be incompatible with the rest of the existing rail system is a mistake.
The FRA made the right decision in both of these cases. The billions requested for a Baltimore maglev could be much better spent replacing the B&P tunnels, adding additional tracks between Baltimore and Washington and upgrading the various stations on the route. Such infrastructure investment would only improve the already competitive 45 minute travel time on Amtrak from DC to Baltimore with stops at New Carrollton and BWI.
Similarly in Pittsburgh, the billions requested could better serve to create a traditional rail connection between the airport and the downtown and upgrade the existing rail infrastructure between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.
Posted by: Cullen | February 2, 2010 11:40 AM
I agree that the Pittsburgh project is a waste of money and should not even have been considered.
However, I disagree that the Baltimore to DC Maglev should not be built (although it was smart not to fun dit now since its not even close to being ready).
This is the Northeast corridor, you get this one working and then you expand it to Philly and then Newark, NYC, New Haven, Providence and eventually Boston. The NE corridor has the ridership for Maglev to work, although, as with all rail travel, it would likely have to be subsidized.
But a train that travels that fast and cuts the commuting time so much would get people out of their cars and would also make the short flights from DC to NYC or Philly to NYC or DC no longer necesary and solving NYC air congestion.
Maglev is the NE corridor would do a lot to improve travel, unfortunately we've moved to slow on it and now was simply not the right time. But lets not abandon it!
Posted by: Richard | February 3, 2010 9:41 AM