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


In the aftermath of this month's death of 14-year-old Anna Marie Stickel (right) along the Amtrak tracks in Middle River, Baltimore County Councilman John Olszewski Sr. is weighing in to ask the county school system to do a better job of educating students about the dangers of intruding in the railroad right-of-way.
Monday's Getting There column calling on the entire Middle River community to take a share of responsibilty for preventing recurrences of the tragic railroad track accidents such as the one that caused the death of 14-year-old Anna Marie Stickel was not universally persuasive.
Amtrak
Apart from disasters, transportation stories tend to unfold over the course of many years. Some of the ones that garner big headlines at the time will be all but forgotten in a few years time. So in choosing the Top 10 Maryland transportation stories of the past decade, it helps to project forward to 2020 or 2030 and look back at what made a lasting difference.
Maryann here, providing spot support this week while Mike's on vacation.