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Developing Transit For Regional Competitiveness

Posted by: Arnab Chakraborty

11 April 2006 - 8:00am

Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and suburban Maryland compete for everything else -- why not transit dollars? Will transit funding for the Virginia airport leave Maryland behind?

There are three major airports in the vicinity of the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. While one of them (Ronald Reagan Airport) is connected to the regional rail system (Metro), the other two (Dulles International and Baltimore Washington International) still depend on bus services to connect to Washington's rail network (technically, BWI has a light-rail connection to Baltimore). Transit additions are proposed not only to connect the city center to the airports but to serve the highly-developed corridors between D.C. and the airports.

Since Virginia authorized extension of transit services to Dulles, Maryland officials woke up to the challenge and "are ramping up plans and support for their own multibillion-dollar extension to Baltimore-Washington International..."

"The General Assembly [of Maryland] late last month approved a $1 million study of the proposed 20-mile extension of the Green Line...because they are going to start building that rail up to Dulles." Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr. (D-Prince George's County) says, "If we don't connect Metro to BWI, we're not going to remain competitive."

"The project would fulfill a decades-old goal of connecting the transit systems in Washington and Baltimore, which are quickly merging into one metropolitan area."

Full Story: Plan for Metro to BWI Gaining Momentum
Source: The Washington Post, April 10, 2006
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