A new 14.1-mile light rail project through downtown Baltimore is among the 17 projects to be funded by Maryland's recent gas tax increase, Governor Martin O'Malley announced this week.
Streetscape improvements, highway widening projects, expanded commuter rail service, new railcars and $519 million towards Baltimore's new $2.6 billion Red Line are among the ambitious transportation projects to be funded by a gas tax increase approved by Maryland's legislature in March. As the first portion of an expected $4 billion in transportation spending over the next six years demonstrates, the gas tax is already "[changing] the environment for transportation construction in the state, reversing a trend of diminished ability — and ambition — when it comes to the state's taking on major projects," write Kevin Rector and Erin Cox.
Baltimore's proposed Red Line will run east-west across the city, stopping at 19 stations in Woodlawn, Edmondson Village, West Baltimore, downtown Baltimore, Harbor East, Fell's Point, Canton and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Campus. Average daily ridership is expected to reach 50,000 by 2030.
"In a statement, O'Malley described the transportation spending as 'making the modern investments a modern economy requires' to educate, innovate and rebuild the state."
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