The goal is to set up a high-speed rail line that connects D.C. and Boston with stops in the primary markets of Philadelphia and New York. It’s a $151 billion Federal Railroad Adminstration project to be completed by 2040. Of the 15 specific plans currently on the table four would allow trains to reach a maximum speed of 220 mph.
Three of those plans include a brand new Baltimore rail station under Charles Center. But one diabolical plan would skip Baltimore altogether in favor of Annapolis and Delmarva.
According to Baltimore Business Journal, the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance isn’t about to let that happen. “There is absolutely no alternative that bypasses Baltimore that we would support,” said president Michele L. Whelley.
But you can bet David Humphreys, the executive director for the Annapolis Regional Transportation Management Association, is aching for the offensive, Baltimore-less line. And he’s happy to act like it wouldn’t hurt Baltimore at all.
“Baltimore is Baltimore,” he said, as if that means anything. And he would have us accept nothing more than the law of identity as proof that Baltimore would in no way be hindered by a futuristic rail line that bypasses the city in the D.C.-Boston corridor. Yeah right.
