By GERALD NEILY
Contrary to Tuesday’s Sun editorial following up on a recent article, there is no good news for the MTA Red Line in U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s recent change in the federal rules for awarding transit projects. The rule changes would elevate livability issues, economic development, environmental benefits and congestion relief – factors on which the MTA Red Line is very vulnerable.
The MTA Red Line would make congestion worse, not better, because it would arguably take away lanes, squeezing more traffic into fewer lanes. And it could only be said to improve “economic development” and “livability” in the vague sense that anyone would use in a sell job.
In two of the communities the Red Line traverses, in fact, Edmondson Village and Canton, many residents do not see it as a boon to livability. The expensive underground segments through Downtown, Fells Point and Cooks Lane were chosen to avoid impacts, not to enhance livability or the environment.
The real indicator that the changed criteria would not help the Red Line is that Maryland Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley reportedly will now take a “second look” at more expensive tunneling under Cooks Lane to eliminate the need for a single reversible track.
Such a change would be made to improve safety and operations, which are essential of course, but would do nothing to enhance livability, economic development or relieve congestion. As far as the community is concerned, it would simply mean more disruptive digging and less threat of a disastrous collision. Since the MTA has previously said that the proposed single-track tunnel would not result in any sacrifice of safety, ridership or travel time, this latest admission only reduces the State’s credibility.
But the biggest problem with the new rules is that competition for federal transit funding is already intense. Major transit systems around the country, such as Philadelphia and Camden NJ, are already looking at the new rules to see how they can benefit from them. But money has not been increased. Any change which advances one system will necessarily derail another. Those systems which are not dealing with fundamental safety and operations issues or neighborhood impacts will get the advantage, not the MTA Red Line.
