3 Reasons MAGLEV Makes No Sense:
1. COSTS
$16 Billion for MAGLEV, just for construction costs, plus vast undetermined operating costs surely not even close to covered by fare box revenue, and a whopping potentially $60 price tag for one-way tickets to Washington from Baltimore, not to mention it would deposit the rider far from key transportation hubs - all ostensibly to save 14 minutes in travel time over MARC Express.
2. CONNECTIVITY (OR LACK THEREOF)
How do you spend $16 billion on a 40-mile track in one of the most densely-populated regions of America and not have it connect with the key multi-modal hubs in the area’s cities? In one case - a proposed Cherry Hill Station in Baltimore - it’s not even close to the downtown, and riders will be forced to disembark the fast train and board slower, older forms of transportation like buses to get to a central area of the city - or worse, get in cars to do so. Making this inconvenient transition from a distant station to their destination will surely eliminate any savings in travel time. So, no time will be saved over Amtrak and MARC in those scenarios, and as mentioned earlier, the costs will be bigger by an order. That’s in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the proposed station - Mt. Vernon Square - will be nowhere near that city’s key transportation hub, Union Station, nor potentially directly connected to the city’s crown jewel of transportation, the Metro system. Construction will be “substantial” and lead to “long-term operational implications”.
3. EQUITY (OR LACK THEREOF)
The very first stated purpose of the MAGLEV train project, as listed in the project’s federal EIS is: “Improve redundancy and mobility option for transportation between the metropolitan areas of Baltimore and Washington, DC.” To which, the appropriate question to ask is, for whom? Who is going to buy that $60 one-way ticket to Washington from Baltimore? The answer: almost no one from either city in the middle or lower income brackets. So who is the $10 billion or more in taxpayer dollars being spent for? The answer is not hard to see. So to the extent that “equity” is the buzzword that every transportation official loves to use these days, this train fails miserably on that metric.
Meanwhile, what’s the preferred alternative?
Twenty-nine minutes from Baltimore to Washington (and vice-versa) at a cost of $8 per ticket…. Twenty-three minutes between BWI and Washington…..
The trains could be run tomorrow on existing tracks with existing MARC-owned equipment.
MARC trains deposit riders in the center of each city - and gives riders in Baltimore the additional benefit of two station options to choose from. Why is any other option - particularly a $16 billion one - even being considered for commuter regional rail in the Baltimore-Washington area?
Read more of BWTRG’s submission to the EIS public comments on the MAGLEV proposal here.
Amtrak head tells Congress that MAGLEV would only benefit the rich.
See the project EIS document here.