The Maryland Department of Transportation plans to slash transit funding over the next six years by $345 million, and the cuts will hit Baltimore particularly hard. The list of new transit projects in the pipeline for the Baltimore area until 2025 consists of a single pedestrian bridge at the Patapsco light rail station south of the Baltimore City-County line.

MDOT’s capital budget for all of the state’s transportation projects over the next six years is called the Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP). The one proposed for Fiscal Years 2020-2025 doesn’t add funding to study new light rail, subway, bus rapid transit, or MARC service, let alone to actually add it or to construct new infrastructure. Nor does it add enough money to bring the rail or bus fleets up to what the Capital Needs Inventory says they should be, or to fully meet state of good repair standards.

Every year, MDOT presents the CTP to each of Maryland’s 32 different jurisdictions, one county at a time, for questions and feedback. Informally, it’s called the “Road Show.” In Baltimore, over a third of households rely on public transit. That made for an awkward meeting last Friday as MDOT presented its budget to Baltimore City.

City Hall was packed with angry Department of Transportation officials, Councilmembers, Maryland State Delegates, and advocates who wanted to know where all the transit money had gone. They were not happy about much of what Maryland Secretary of Transportation Pete Rahn and the heads of the agencies he oversees had to say.

MDOT will continue to refine the CTP as it recieves feedback, and the final version should come out next fall. As proposed right now, here’s what it would do to transit in the Baltimore area.

Baltimore MTA bus by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

The CTP would gut funding for the MTA

First, the CTP would cut the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) capital budget by $345 million just in the next fiscal year alone. MTA already faces a $2 billion funding shortfall, according to the legislatively-mandated Capital Needs Assessment it released for the first time back in July.

Baltimore City Department of Transportation Director Steve Sharkey urged Rahn and MDOT not to cut MTA funding and asked it to give the same commitment to “safety, reliability, and moving faster” it gave to WMATA with last year’s funding deal. Rahn responded that the lack of funds wasn’t a cut, but rather the result of MTA delivering on some “very expensive capital projects.”

Under Governor Larry Hogan, MDOT has a pattern of cutting transit funds in favor of highway and road projects. Baltimore is still reeling from previous years’ cancellation of the Red Line and the Bayview MARC Station in East Baltimore.

“Taking out the Purple Line, MTA’s being cut more than other agencies,” said Delegate Brooke Lierman of Maryland’s 46th District, citing the State Highway Administration and WMATA in particular. “That’s a direct hit to Baltimore City, so I urge you to reconsider these cuts. We need to invest in Baltimore City and the Baltimore region by investing in the MTA. And I also want to note that this delegation is not going to sit idly by while you dismantle our transit system.”

“This Delegation will not sit idly by why you try to dismantle our transit system.” - Delegate Brooke Lierman. #CTP pic.twitter.com/VwyWvlfmbQ — Del. Robbyn Lewis (@RobbynLewis46th) September 27, 2019

There’s a big need for better bus service. Baltimore City Councilmember and Council Transportation Committee Chairman Ryan Dorsey pointed out the MTA’s current estimate of 71.4% on-time bus performance “meets almost no one’s definition of reliable or attractive.”

Rahn said the recent sinkhole on Pratt Street was one reason MTA buses haven’t been reliable lately, and pushed back against suggestions of adding more transit funding for the city. “The more transit funding goes here, it has to come from somewhere [else],” he said. “It’s zero-sum.”

Worries about the fate of the Regional Transit Plan

The MTA is currently developing the Regional Transit Plan for Central Maryland, a 25-year “vision of mobility” that aims to radically improve how people get around Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Harford County, and Howard County. However, this current budget makes its fate unclear.

Delegate Tony Bridges of Maryland’s 41st District in Northwest Baltimore asked how the MTA and Maryland’s lawmakers could ensure that there’d still be funding to implement the plan once it’s released in 2020. Rahn responded there was no capital plan to implement it yet, and he wouldn’t guarantee expanded funding for it because it has to be “fiscally sensible.” (Greater Baltimore Committee CEO Donald Fry called Rahn’s response “perplexing” in its inherent limitations at a symposium for the plan the following week.)

Delegate Regina Boyce of Maryland’s 43rd District, based in North Central Baltimore, asked how buses might be integrated into the Plan, but didn’t get any clear answers. Quinn pointed to the expansion of bus lanes, the recent introduction of GPS tracking for MTA buses, and the agency adapting its first real time data-based bus schedules earlier this year. Rahn said allowing Baltimore City Public School students to ride for free was part of why there was an agency-wide increase in operations expenses.

Little money for improving safety for people walking and biking

There have been 513 pedestrian fatalities on roads and highways throughout Maryland last year, counting people who were struck by drivers after getting out of their own cars. However, you’d hardly be able to guess that from looking at the CTP, which in its 545 pages only mentions “pedestrian safety” nine times. Only three of those mentions are connected to projects in Baltimore City or Baltimore County.

Bicycles fare slightly better: There’s $678,000 from the MTA via a TIGER grant for the North Avenue Rising Project, which is currently underway. It will redesign one of Baltimore’s most important thoroughfares, North Avenue, and includes “on-street bike facilities.” Plus there’s an additional $612,000 from the MTA for statewide bicycle initiatives. Even so, the words “bike lanes” come up only twice in the entire CTP.

Delegate Robbyn Lewis of the 46th District, based in Southeast Baltimore, asked about pedestrian safety and whether there was any racial breakdown in crash data. Slater promised to look into it but said that there was not yet such an existing analysis. Baltimore City Councilmember John Bullock of the Council’s Ninth District, based in West Baltimore, brought up the city’s poor Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. Quinn said it was on the “needs list” but not funded.

The MARC train in Baltimore by Matt’ Johnson licensed under Creative Commons.

Cuts to MARC funding

This budget reduces MARC funding, despite the fact that ridership is expected to dramatically increase over the next few decades. Right now the MARC Penn Line has seen frequent bottlenecks, which have lead to increasingly longer and more frequent delays.

Some want to expand the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, the 100+-year-old tunnel that has caused many of the issues. There’s need for other infrastructure improvements too: Right now the shelter at the West Baltimore MARC, which also doubles as a key bus terminal in the city, does little to protect riders.

When pressed on the lack of MARC funds, Rahn said the increasing operating expenses required for the state-owned trio of commuter rail lines are an impediment to expanding service. He also said Amtrak’s ownership of the Penn Line’s tracks and freight rail giant CSX’s ownership of the Camden Line and Brunswick Line’s tracks are an issue.

Rahn noted that some of the recent Penn Line delays were also due to Amtrak’s recent extensive track reconstruction, and shrugged at the mention of the B&P Tunnel. He said the cheapest option currently under study by Amtrak would cost over $5 billion, and said nobody knew how to pay for it. He did not mention how this would fit with the Central Maryland Regional Transit Plan or the MARC Cornerstone Plan the MTA developed last year.

What’s up next for the CTP?

Right now the CTP is still being put together, and a final version will be released next fall. If you’re interested in attending a “road show,” Prince George’s County’s stop is on November 1 and Montgomery County’s on November 4.

We’re going to keep writing about what the CTP does and keeping track of how it changes. Stay tuned for more about how it’ll affect Maryland and the region.