West Baltimore County Not Getting Red Line: Hogan

When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that his administration would not be funding the proposed Red Line, Baltimore County’s leader called for an alternative to ease congestion.

The Red Line would have created light rail service from Woodlawn in west Baltimore County to Hopkins Bayview in east Baltimore.

The price tag was $2.9 million, and Hogan said during an Annapolis press conference that he would not participate in “wasteful and irresponsible spending on poorly conceived projects,” according to The Washington Post.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said that if the project were scrapped, another option needed to be brought to the table.

“Baltimore County is home to Social Security and CMS headquarters, with more than 16,000 employees, many of whom would have used the Red Line to come to work,” Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said in a statement Thursday. Social Security and CMS are the largest employers in Baltimore County; the next largest is GBMC with 3,695 workers.

The proposed 19-stop light rail would have run west to east across Baltimore City and had already received a $900 million commitment from the federal government, Baltimore magazine reported.

“Without presenting viable alternatives, the state not only forfeits available federal funding, it leaves Baltimore County, Baltimore City and the region stuck in traffic,” Kamenetz said.

The state transportation secretary told The Baltimore Sun the “fatal flaw” with the project was a tunnel.

The 14.1-mile Red Line proposal included building a $1 billion tunnel under downtown to get to Harbor East, a factor that led Hogan to say: “We can do better,” according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

The head of the Canton Community Association told The Baltimore Sun he agreed the tunnel would be problematic, cutting through the neighborhood.

A Hogan spokeswoman told The Washington Post that savings from not building the Red Line would go toward improving road infrastructure, and the governor rolled out projects to improve bridges and roads across the state. Hogan also said he would support the Purple Line in the Washington suburbs, according to WTOP, although he said the state would spend less than anticipated and would look to Prince George’s and Montgomery counties to contribute more than was initially proposed.

With no Red Line in the future, Kamenetz called for more information about what the road ahead looks like.

“Given Governor Hogan’s announcement that he will cancel the Red Line as currently planned, it is imperative that he tell us what he proposes as an alternative,” Kamenetz said in a statement Thursday. “The Baltimore region still needs reliable and accessible transportation options other than automobiles to allow people to get to and from work.”

Graphic from the Maryland Department of Transportation.