WHILE Baltimore’s train fire continued to disrupt city traffic, Maryland’s transportation secretary was urging commuters to take the Metro subway.
That’s a great idea for commuters who live along the subway’s northwest corridor.
But what about travelers coming from the east? Or west? Or south?
The fire and water main break – and the resulting traffic snarl in downtown Baltimore – exposed a major weakness in the metropolitan area’s rail transit system.
That is, there is no system.
The MTA’s stray lines are nothing like Washington’s 103-mile rail system, which covers that area like a spider web, pulling in riders from every direction.
The Maryland Transit Authority’s light rail and Metro lines don’t give commuters a reasonable alternative to driving either for emergencies or for daily travel.
Last week’s events should wake up the governor’s office and regional planners who have spent years blaming each other for not getting things done and, in the meantime, doing next to nothing.
It’s time to get serious.
In 2003, the federal government will grant six-year awards for construction of the nation’s best-designed regional transit projects. The Baltimore region has failed to capture similar awards in the past. Last week’s troubles should make it obvious to the area’s top elected officials and Gov. Parris N. Glendening that this region desperately needs them to submit concrete plans for an east-west rail extension.
John Porcari, the transportation secretary, was right to rattle off a list of subway stations with adequate parking. He was right to suggest that Metro is a good idea for people living in northwest Baltimore, Randallstown, Pikesville and Owings Mills.
Now, extend that notion throughout the region and bring rail transit to Baltimore’s eastern, southern and western quadrants.
