Maryland to Restart Planning for East-West Transit Line Through Baltimore

Maryland Governor Wes Moore recently joined officials from the federal, state, and local levels, along with business and community leaders, to announce plans to restart the Red Line transit route, an east-west route through central Baltimore canceled, to some controversy, by former-Governor Larry Hogan in 2015.

According to a column by Joe Nathanson for the Daily Record, the immediate goal “is to come up with decisions about the route alignment, station locations, mode (e.g., bus rapid transit, light rail) and arrive at a ‘locally preferred alternative’ for submission to the federal government by the end of calendar 2024”—a timeline that would make the project eligible for New Starts grant program funding for the federal fiscal year 2026.

Nathanson’s conversation with state officials and advocates would seem to indicate that a subway running heavy rail is off the table for the project due to cost concerns.

The article, linked below, explains several other transit investments in the works to improve transit in Baltimore in the short term while the plan for the Red Line is developed. Gov. Moore first hinted at the rebirth of the Red Line in December 2022.