
Transit Times, vol. 31, no. 1, January 2017
PAGE 4
Voters in Santa Clara County, CA passed Mea-
sure B raising their sales tax by half a cent to
transportation improvements, including bringing
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to
downtown San Jose, raising more than $6 billion
over the next three decades. Measure B was gar-
nering 71% support with an estimated 44% of the
ballots counted.
In Fairfax County, VA, voters passed a $120
million bond measure, a portion of which would
finance safety and system maintenance projects,
new rail cars and power upgrades for running
eight car trains, additional buses for operating
Priority Corridor Networks, and rail station im-
provements.
In Arlington County, VA, voters passed a $58.8
million bond measure to partly finance the cost
of various capital projects for Metrorail and other
transit, pedestrian, road and transportation proj-
ects.
On a personal note, it seems that in the face of
both President-elect Donald Trump’s emphasis to
bolster infrastructure and Republican platform to
delete transit funding, the best bet is to pass local
measures supporting transit funding.
A State-Wide Rail Network
Advocated for Maryland
By Quon Kwan
On October 11, 2016, Maryland state-wide transit
advocates, the newly formed “Maryland Transit
Opportunities Coalition,” made its debut. The
coalition is comprised of Action Committee for
Transit, the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition,
Prince George’s Advocates for Community-based
Transit and Southern Maryland Alliance for Rapid
Transit. In the debut, it asked Governor Larry
Hogan to redirect $8 billion proposed for widen-
ing of I-270 and the Washington Beltway to build
a state-wide rail network to run from Delaware to
Southern Maryland to West Virginia and connect-
ing Baltimore and Washington Metrorail systems.
As a link in this state-wide rail network, the Balti-
more Light Rail Red Line project would be re-
vived. The plan would be to construct the Red and
Purple lines, fund the planning and development
of a $25 million Southern Maryland Light Rail
line and increase the frequency of the Maryland
Area Rail Commuter (MARC) commuter trains.
Governor Hogan withdrew state funding for the
Baltimore Red Line, the long-anticipated east-
west rail line between Woodlawn and Bayview.
Governor Hogan called the $2.9 billion Red Line
a “wasteful boondoggle.” At the same time, the
Governor conditionally approved a slimmed-down
Purple Line project that reduced much of the
state’s contribution, leaving Prince George’s and
Montgomery counties to pay more of the cost.
Ben Ross, chair of the new coalition, said its
members had been working separately to promote
local transit projects for years — but now want
to work together on a statewide approach. “We
developed a plan,” said Ross, the former president
of the Action Committee for Transit in Montgom-
ery County. At the same cost as the widening of of
I-270 and D.C. Beltway, we could build a transit
network all across Maryland from Elkton to Fred-
erick, from Waldorf all the way to Towson.” “Our
basic strategy is to make the public understand
what the possibilities are here,” he said. “Over the
next 10 to 20 years there will be several gover-
nors. I think it’s more a matter of what the public
wants than who is in office. ..”
The coalition asked the Governor to resume work
on the Red Line and reintroduce a decade-old
MARC plan for all-day, two-way service to/from
Washington, Frederick, and Camden Yards, and
between Baltimore and points north (Aberdeen,
Elkton and Delaware). Ross said coalition mem-
bers will attend Maryland Department of Trans-
portation road shows to make their case directly to
the public.
The coalition email is TransitforMD@gmail.com.
Follow MTOC ON Twitter at @TransitforMD.
Visit http://www.transitformd.org,