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April 26, 2006
Red Line Workshops Set for May MTA has announced community workshops on the Red Line next month. The workshops, planned for five locations along the 10-mile alignment, will follow-up on concerns raised during the last round of meetings in November 2005. The Red Line team will also lead roundtable discussions of station locations and station design features. This information, in addition to earlier input and on-going technical analysis, will form the basis of the decision about which options to carry forward for more detailed study. For meeting dates and locations, click here.
Transit Issues 'Need More Study' Says 2006 General Assembly Though dominated by eleventh hour tension over electric utility deregulation and school governance, several important bills addressing transit issues passed the 2006 General Assembly and await the Governor's signature. The legislature's theme seemed to be "more study is needed." What follows is a summary of the issues we followed. Red Line Citizens Advisory Council. A new Citizens Advisory Council was created to provide input to MTA on its Red Line study. The council will have 15 members, 10 of whom are appointed the legislature; two by the administration; two by the Mayor of Baltimore; and one by the Baltimore County Executive. The bill also requires MTA to consider establishing a fund to compensate the owners of property damaged by the project; to consider commercial development opportunities around stations; and to consider methods give preferential treatment to corridor residents when hiring for construction jobs. Click here to see the bill. Bills that would have required MTA to study additional transit modes and alignments were rejected. Transit Funding Study. Backing away from a proposal to dedicate a portion of the state sales tax to transit, the General Assembly instead passed a bill requiring MDOT to study transit funding needs and mechanisms to meet those needs. The study, to be completed in December, will be overseen by a steering committee comprised of legislators and the secretaries of Transportation and Budget. Presumably, the study findings will be the basis of a future legislative initiative. Click here to see the bill. Public Hearings on Bus Service Changes. As part of the budget bill, MTA was prevented from implementing the next phase of the Greater Baltimore Bus Initiative until it could hold public hearings and prepare a study on the impacts of the first round of changes. This would delay implementation until October, but Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan has said it will be next year before additional changes are made. MARC Station Closings. A bill was passed preventing the closure of underused MARC Train stations for a year and requiring MTA to complete a study of the impacts of doing so. Prior to passage of the bill MDOT announced it would delay the closings and appoint an advisory committee to study to issue. Citing the lack of need for the bill, the Governor allowed it to become law without his signature. Click here to see the bill.
Hybrid Buses Set for Baltimore Debut Taking part of a national trend toward cleaner, more comfortable buses, MTA has taken delivery of 10 hybrid diesel-electric buses. The buses are not yet in regular service, and the MTA has not announced how they will be used. The hybrids are part of a larger order of conventional buses and appear nearly identitical to the others, but sharp-eyed observers will notice large roof-mounted units that house the batteries. Hybrid buses use batteries and electric motors to supplement the diesel engine which, in the stop-and-go driving conditions typical of city bus routes, increases fuel efficiency by about 30 percent and reduces emissions. The hybrids cost about $600,000 each, one-third more than a conventional bus. Whether this additional cost is recovered through savings in fuel consumption will depend on the price of diesel fuel over the 12-year life of the bus.
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