Background
In 2001, then-Secretary of Transportation John Porcari appointed a 23-member independent commission, the Baltimore Region Rail System Plan Advisory Committee, to make suggestions for new rail lines and expansions of existing lines. The proposals used a unified branding scheme for the existing lines and the proposed new lines, identifying each line by a color, as the Washington Metro and many other transit agencies do.
The suggested system was composed of six color-coded lines with an overall length of 109 miles (175 km) and 122 stations, including Baltimore's existing Metro Subway and Light Rail lines. In the commission's report, the Red Line was an east-west line that would begin at the Social Security Administration offices in Woodlawn in Baltimore County; travel through West Baltimore, with an intermodal stop at the West Baltimore MARC station; pass through downtown, where it would intersect the existing Metro Subway and Light Rail lines; and passing through East Baltimore, with stops in the newly gentrifying neighborhoods of Fells Point, Canton, and the area around Patterson Park. The Red Line was designated by the commission as the starting component for new work on the 6-line system.
Of the commission's proposals, the Red Line was taken up with the most enthusiasm by area officials. Progress was slowed by a debate between state Secretary of Transportation Robert Flanagan and the Baltimore city government and Congressional delegation over the mode: Flanagan favored a bus rapid transit (BRT) solution with separate right-of-way components, like Boston's Silver Line; the other officials favored a light rail rapid transit line or heavy rail, insisting that both modes of rail transit be included in studies.
Heavy rail was dismissed by Flanagan as an alternative, due to an estimated cost of $2.2 billion to $2.6 billion. With ridership of only 45,000 on Baltimore's existing Metro system at the time of his appointment, he did not expect the Red Line to reach the 140,000 to 150,000 ridership level necessary to attract federal funding for a new heavy rail line.
Read more about this topic: Red Line (Baltimore)
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