Out of all the transit systems in the United States, regardless of mode, the vast majority are operated by regional transit authorities (RTAs). These are supervising bodies organized at the local level among neighboring cities, towns, and counties, instead of the state. For almost 50 years, however, Baltimore has been one of the largest cities in the country not to use an RTA for its transit, but is instead controlled by the state of Maryland.

But with frustrations mounting over frequent mechanical breakdowns and lack of funding for future projects, the idea of shifting at least some of the governance for Central Maryland’s transit from the Maryland Transit Administration over to a regional transit authority has been rapidly growing in popularity in recent years.

And with proponents as disparate as transit advocacy groups like the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition (BTEC), civic/business groups like the Greater Washington Partnership and the Greater Baltimore Committee and even some of Baltimore’s more prominent mayoral candidates supporting the idea, it’s worth taking a closer look at why so many people think an RTA could hold the key to many of Baltimore’s transit troubles.

What’s old is new again

To be clear, the idea of Baltimore controlling its own transit isn’t particularly new. Up until 1970, the bulk of the city’s buses (and until the 1960s, streetcars) had been controlled for several decades by the privately run Baltimore Transit Company.

Since then, however, it’s been a state-level agency, the MTA, that’s run most of Charm City’s public transit. While that’s resulted in some cost savings for Baltimore City, whose Department of Transportation runs the Charm City Circulator buses and Harbor Connector water taxis, and for Baltimore County, which still doesn’t even have its own full Transportation Department (The county’s sole bus system, CountyRide, is run through its Department of Aging), it’s also left them without many options when key projects like the Red Line light rail link between East and West Baltimore are canceled by the Governor of Maryland.

In fact, it was the cancellation of the Red Line that first led BTEC to begin advocating for a Regional Transit Authority for Baltimore and which has helped shape the group’s vision for such an agency.

Shortly after the Red Line’s demise in 2015, BTEC filed a Title VI complaint with the US Department of Transportation alleging racial discrimination in Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s decision not to go forward with the project in a majority-black city.

That complaint was quickly closed by the newly inaugurated Trump administration, which helped lead the group to begin rethinking its strategy for reviving the Red Line and increasing the presence of equity considerations in Baltimore’s transit policy.

“We began knowing that we were fighting against the established transportation policy and philosophy because the Governor canceled the Red Line and permitted the Purple Line to continue,” said BTEC President Samuel Jordan. “We’ve also seen how people of color and low-income, transit-dependent households are adversely impacted by the cancellation of the Red Line.”

So by the end of 2018, BTEC had turned its attention towards creating a Regional Transit Authority for Baltimore, one which could possibly revive plans for the Red Line. Initially, the goal was to accomplish this through legislation in the Maryland General Assembly.

But after Gov. Hogan failed to allocate the money from a pair of bills to study creating an RTA passed without a vote during the 2019 legislative session, BTEC opted to start gathering signatures from residents at the end of February 2020 for a Baltimore City ballot initiative, with the goal of having that initiative voted on this November.

“Our ballot issue campaign mandates the city to take the first steps to the creation of a Baltimore regional transportation authority,” Jordan said in early March. “The RTA will have among its priorities, the re-evaluation of the approved Environmental Impact Study (EIS), protection of the Red Line corridor from obstruction, and financing the Red Line as the first installment in a central Maryland transportation network anchored by light rail.”

Of course, BTEC’s plans for a Baltimore RTA ballot initiative were, as was the case with countless events and campaigns across the world, derailed later that month by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have taken a realistic look at the prospects for the ballot petition campaign drive,” Jordan said earlier this month. “And what stands out clearly is that with the requirements or at least the recommendations for social distancing alone, there would be difficulties if we persisted with the campaign.”

Since a traditional petition drive, with its mandatory requirements for collecting signatures, using multiple pens, and repeated close personal contact, is inherently impossible during a pandemic, Jordan and BTEC have switched to a slightly less direct approach to achieving a Regional Transit Authority. Even if the coalition’s petition drive had proceeded as planned and then been approved by Baltimore City voters this November, it would still have needed legislation passed by the Baltimore City Council amending the city’s charter to actually make a Regional Transit Authority a reality, not to mention funding and negotiations with the city’s immediate neighbors, Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, and nearby Howard County. So BTEC’s new plan is to just cut out the electoral middleman.

“Our proposal is to amend the Baltimore City Charter to create a fund,” Jordan said. “And that fund, the Baltimore Regional Transit Authority Fund, is to be used by a commission, appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council, and composed of 11 members.” This commission would then reach out and negotiate with the other Central Maryland counties to create a Regional Transit Authority for the area.

Bus lanes in Baltimore by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

Growing support for RTA

But it’s not just grassroots activist groups like BTEC who are pushing for a Baltimore Regional Transit Authority and not just to try to revive the Red Line or increase transit equity either. The idea of a Regional Transit Authority has also gained traction with several local business and civic groups as well.

One such group, the Greater Washington Partnership, included a version of the concept in its November 2018 Capital Region Blueprint for Regional Mobility.

Specifically, the Blueprint calls to “create a new regional governance structure for Baltimore public transportation.” The section of the GWP’s report calling for this new structure is brief, taking up just four paragraphs in a single section of the Blueprint. But even within that short space, the GWP points out that the primary funding source for the MTA’s capital and operating expenses is the State of Maryland’s Transportation Trust Fund, not Baltimore City and the other counties it primarily serves and cites that structure as a reason why Baltimore’s public transit hasn’t kept up with its maintenance needs.

Other groups looking at the idea of a Regional Transit Authority for Baltimore include the Greater Baltimore Committee, an extremely influential organization of business and civic leaders in Baltimore City and five other nearby counties, which actually made “What is your position on the creation of a Regional Transit Authority to oversee the transit network?” the final question on its questionnaire for this year’s Baltimore City mayoral candidates and the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board.

The latter group is even using the MTA itself to examine the feasibility of an RTA, as confirmed last month by MDOT spokesperson Brittany Marshall: “The Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB) in undertaking a study on the establishment of a regional transportation board. MDOT MTA will work with BRTB to provide information as needed for their study.”

That’s not to say that most of the groups currently clamoring for a Regional Transit Authority know exactly what they want a potential Regional Transit Authority to look like or how far it should deviate from the MTA’s current organizational structure.

But according to the GWP’s Director of Transportation Policy, Joe McAndrew, what matters is that the discussions to figure out the answer to that question are underway within the Greater Baltimore region. “What’s important is that more people are talking about it,” McAndrew said. “Because the current system for Baltimore is, unfortunately, inadequate to be competitive, attract riders, and connect residents to destinations of importance in a timely manner.”