May 20, 2005 

BTA Board Meeting Scheduled for June 17, 2005

The BTA Board of Advisors will meet Friday, June 17, 2005 from 8 to 10 AM at GBC's offices, 111 S. Calvert Street. Meetings are open to Board members only.

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Maps of Refined Red Line Routes Distributed to Stakeholders

MTA's Red Line team has distributed to its Community Working Group members new maps showing the refined Red Line alternatives that will be presented to the public in June. The refinement was conducted based on the public reaction to options presented last fall, feedback from five Community Working Groups, and an internal technical review. More precise information will be developed over the next eight months for the options shown on the maps. To see the routes from Social Security to Gwynns Falls Park, click here. To see the routes from Gywnns Falls Park to Canton, click here.

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Lisa Dickerson Named MTA Administrator

Following a seven month stint as acting administrator, Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan last week named Lisa L. Dickerson to serve in the position permanently. Dickerson had previously reported directly to Flanagan as an assistant sectretary in charge of equal employment opportunity and minority business enterprise programs. As MTA administrator, Dickerson is responsible for the day to day operation of the 3,000 person agency, the 10th largest transit agency in the country when measured by passenger miles. According to an MDOT press release, Dickerson has so far focused on reform of the paratransit operation, mechanical reliability of the bus fleet, and bus system restructuring. GBC's Don Fry, speaking for BTA, said he hoped Dickerson would emerge as an advocate for transit service in the Ehrlich administration, including the on-going Red and Green Line studies.

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Bus Restructuring Proposal Unveiled

All but a few of the 50 core bus routes in the MTA system would be modified this October under a recently unveiled proposal. Modifications include the elimination of lightly used routes, increased frequencies on overcrowded routes, and consolidation of routes onto fewer streets. The changes indicate a new emphasis on the core of the region at the expense of peripheral routes that reached into sparsely developed commercial and residential communities. For example, business parks along Nursery Road in Anne Arundel County will no longer be served, but a new east-west limited stop line will be introduced in the US 40 corridor. The specific proposals are likely to be controversial, and the MTA has scheduled hearings in mid-June to take public comments. The BTA's Short Term Initiatives Committee will be considering the proposal and making a recommendation to the full Board of Advisors.

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Senate Bucks White House, Adopts $294 Billion Transportation Reauthorization Bill

On May 17 the U.S. Senate, supported by the "yea" votes by Maryland senators Sarbanes and Mikulski, passed a bill to reauthorize federal transit and highway programs through 2009. The bill guarantees $293.8 billion in funding, including $53.8 billion for transit over six years. The Senate's action sets the stage for a showdown with the White House which has promised that President Bush will veto any transportation plan that spends more than $284 billion, the amount passed by the House of Representatives in March. No major changes were made to the transit provisions of the bill on the Senate floor. The two bills must now go to a conference committee for resolution of the differences in the bills, but they will have to work fast given the May 31 expiration of the latest extension of the prior authorization. Since meeting this deadline is not likely, another extension, the seventh since October 2003, will be needed first.

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