With many residents worried about the impacts of a potential $10 billion high-speed maglev train that would connect D.C. and Baltimore in just 15 minutes, members of the Prince George’s County Council questioned the benefits of the project Tuesday, even as project leaders suggested they are now focused on a path that they say would mean fewer disruptions.
“Citizen opposition is very high, and, matter of fact, information seems to be very low,” Council Chair Derrick Leon Davis told representatives of the private groups that would build and run the line.
Kisha Brown, community and external affairs director for Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail, said the group is now leaning toward one of the two routes (click for an interactive map) that tunnel from downtown Washington under Bladensburg and Greenbelt before emerging above ground on one side or the other of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to near Fort Meade, where the train would go back underground to a station at BWI Marshall Airport, then under the Patapsco River to Baltimore.
She agreed more information needs to get out to the communities that could be tunneled under, or be near power stations or a rail yard.
The State of Maryland supports the project, and is running the environmental impact statement process that could lead to approvals for construction within two years. The study is funded through a $27.8 million federal grant.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Max Smith over at WTOP