ANNAPOLIS – Maryland lawmakers may place transit priorities like Baltimore’s Red Line on hold this spring in the face of bleak federal funding prospects and a search for savings in the state budget.
Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson says that while leaders haven’t given up on those ambitions entirely, some long-awaited plans go dormant – even the Red Line, which would serve his Baltimore City district.
“We’re still holding (out) hope that there’s a recognition of the need to invest in large infrastructure projects that improve our economy,” he said. “We’re realistic that the Red Line project is one that probably has a much bigger hurdle [before it] than it did previously.”
But as leaders pump the brakes, other lawmakers think the state should keep investing in transit in anticipation of a future, more transit-friendly White House.
The state plans transportation spending in six-year increments, said Baltimore City Democrat Del. Mark Edelson, “and President Trump isn’t going to be in office for a (full) cycle.”
The Red Line project is the most prominent and expensive of the state’s prospective transit expansion projects. Route planning for a light rail line running east-to-west through downtown Baltimore is currently underway.
The Red Line will provide high-frequency, high-capacity transit and access to jobs, opportunities, services and resources that improve residents’ daily lives in the Baltimore region. Visit https://t.co/I3aFpjuVHM for more information. pic.twitter.com/RvdhwrEugd
— Baltimore Red Line (@redlinemaryland) June 16, 2023
The Southern Maryland Rapid Transit project is also back in motion. It aims to connect commuters to D.C.’s transit system via a light rail line or dedicated bus lane between Waldorf and a Metro station in Prince George’s County.
Rural transit systems could also receive budget relief through two proposals this session that would expand the state’s investment in transit outside Maryland’s largest urban centers. One proposal would index the state’s annual local transit funding to keep pace with inflation. The other would require the state to offset the impacts of major highway expansions by directing money to alternate modes of transportation.
Some lawmakers who hope to maintain momentum on transit improvements see those services as a tool to kickstart growth. Transit is more cost-efficient than expanding roads and highways, they argue.
“There’s a lot of available capacity on our transit lines that our roadways would require billions of dollars to match,” said Del. Marc Korman, a Montgomery County Democrat and chair of the House Environment and Transportation Committee.
Red Line as a prime example of a transit service that commuters want, said Edelson. Ridership is rising on bus routes serving the same east-west corridor, he added, even as the bus system struggles to provide reliable service.
That pent-up demand, he argues, is reason to forge ahead. “It just means we have to be a little more thoughtful with the timing of the projects,” he said.
Edelson, among the most vocal transit advocates in Annapolis, is also the House sponsor of the two proposals to expand the state’s investments in local transit systems.
To court bipartisan support for those investments, Edelson notes that local transit agencies can decide how to spend the additional state resources. “This isn’t the state of Maryland saying this is what you need. It’s the state of Maryland saying we’re going to give money to the jurisdiction, and you figure out what your people need,” he said.
Edelson also underscores the challenges facing rural transit agencies in every corner of the state. Their budgets are flat. Their operating costs are rising. And they are seeing growing demand from aging, low-income communities that rely on transit to reach dialysis appointments, grocery stores, or workplaces.
“State funding has been flat for over a decade, but the cost of service continues to go up,” said Suzanne Kalmbacher, chief of Cecil County Transit. “There’s a breaking point where you can’t grow unless you have additional funding at some point.”
“It’s often an incredibly small amount of money in the large picture of things that could enable an expansion of service,” said John Duklewski, executive director of the Transportation Association of Maryland, a group representing local transit agencies. Edelson’s proposal to index the state’s funding for local transit would cost less than $3 million in the first year, with those dollars distributed across two dozen agencies statewide.
But as the General Assembly eyes yet another round of cuts, even small budget requests face an uphill battle. And those smaller agencies face other uncertainties this year.
Half of the state’s local transit agencies rely on federal sources for a majority of their operating expenses, including some discretionary dollars.
Big-ticket projects are also vulnerable to national political headwinds. House Economic Matters Committee Chair C.T. Wilson thinks the blue state of Maryland will be a target over the next four years.
“I do believe that we’re going to be punished when it comes to getting funding for our transportation projects,” the Charles County Democrat told Capital News Service.
While Wilson is supportive of transit expansions in principle, he argued the state may have overpromised on some of its goals – including on the Southern Maryland Rapid Transit project, which would serve commuters in his district.
Rather than considering a more expensive light rail option, Wilson argues, the state should have moved forward with a cheaper bus rapid transit system years ago. He says the resulting delays, and the higher cost, could doom the project altogether.
“Let’s ask for what we think we can get versus asking for the moon on a popsicle stick,” he said. “Because in this case, you just get nothing.”
House Minority Leader Rep. Jason Buckel said he has no problem shifting major transit expansions to the bottom of the state’s priority list.
“The Red Line is not going to happen in the foreseeable future,” he told CNS. “When we’re in the budget hole that we’re in, to be talking about doing more mass transit just seems to be missing the point.”
Buckel is less skeptical of the state’s spending on agencies like Allegany Transit, his district’s primary transit provider. It primarily serves riders with no alternatives, he said. But if the state plans to keep expanding urban transit systems in the future, he argues, the state should raise fares to make transit riders pay for that.
Maryland’s Department of Transportation has a signed federal grant agreement in hand for one major transit project: the overhaul of Baltimore’s existing light rail system.
But for the most part, state and local transit agencies remain in the dark on future funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Now that the new DOT secretary has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate,” Ferguson said last week, “I think we’ll probably hear things in the next 30 days that will kind of give us an indication of what’s the best way for us to go.”