Is there a better Red Line?

Baltimore Red Line map (tunnel sections dashed)

The stars for bringing back the Red Line seem to align with Governor Moore and MDOT Secretary Wiedefeld in favor of it and the federal government setting aside large amounts of money for transit and infrastructure. In fact, Governor Moore is scheduled to make an east-west transit announcement on June 15 at the West Baltimore MARC station. 

Is it also the right time to open a discussion about alternatives? A group previously opposed to the Red Line thinks so. They came out with a concept they dubbed "Smart Line" last month (see below). 

Smart Line

A Community-Led Proposal for Baltimore's Newest Public Transportation Line

East-West Heavy Rail (Subway) Done in 5 Phases to "Get the Red Line Done"

BaltimoreSmartLine.org

The proposal was created with the tremendous assistance of an exceptional volunteer technical advisory team, with over 100 years of experience in bringing city and state transportation projects to fruition. As many of you know, our community of Midtown-Edmondson is one of the most disinvested in the state, yet we also sit directly on one of Maryland's most underutilized transportation assets: the West Baltimore MARC Station. One of the keys to unlocking the potential of that station was always going to be rapid east-west rail. But also critical was going to be how well we maximize the benefits from careful coordination of the other large projects slated for our area, including:

• West Baltimore MARC Station redesign/rebuild
• Route 40 Highway to Nowhere reimagine
• Douglass/B&P Tunnel Project
• Future Transit-Oriented Developments 

Smart Line is our effort to spark a robust conversation about how to do just that. And... to upscale our vision - not just for the West Baltimore MARC Station, not just for east-west rail, but for the limitless potential of Central West Baltimore overall. 

The announcement sounds innocent enough, who doesn't want "smart"? The "press release" even says in its title "Get the Red Line done" as if the group were really in favor of the Red Line. As with those alternative energy providers pretending to be BGE, though, the truth resides in the fine print, in this case the various tabs of the Smart Line's website.  The  group does nothing else than peddling an old hat, specifically the same idea the same people already promoted when the Red Line was in planning. The idea that was dismissed back then for its impracticality and it hasn't become any more practical or feasible now. The gist of the idea: Use the existing Metro tunnel in downtown and extend it to the West Baltimore MARC going west and to Bayview going east by running the line along the Amtrak tracks just north of the EBDI area. This would save the new tunnels under downtown and Fells Point proposed in the Red Line design that Hogan killed. Of course, it would be intriguing to save all the new and expensive tunnel construction. If it were easy to do, the Red Line plans which were developed by a national team of experts over 13 years, in the homestretch under the lead of AECOM, one of the world's largest architecture-engineering teams with rail transit experience worldwide. 

"Smart Rail" doesn't mention a recently completed renewed east-west corridor study. Not mentioned either is that a version of their idea of extending Metro "heavy rail" instead of building new "light rail" made it as one of the alternatives into study which was initiated when Hogan was still Governor. That study looked once again at a full set of alternatives how to best run east-west transit, presumably with the notion that things may be different in 2022 than in the decade before. 

Seven alternatives were evaluated, one (alternative 6) being virtually identical to the Red Line. Alternative 3 looked at metro extensions similar to the group's proposal, except it never took Metro as far west as this group now proposes. Here is the clincher: Unlike what the group claims, the corridor study shows that even the shorter Metro extension included uin the study would not be saving money. Instead it was the highest cost alternative. That is not surprising, because "heavy rail" subways (those that use the third rail to get electric power) are by far the most expensive way to build transit. What the "Smart Rail" concept would save on tunnel costs downtown it would more then spend again on a connecting tunnel that is needed to get from the Lexington Market station to the Highway to Nowhere. Not to mention the tunnels that are needed west of the West Baltimore MARC station, and leaving entirely unaddressed how such a subway would traverse the Gwynns Falls valley which is currently spanned by the recently fully rebuilt route 40 viaduct. The new bridhe was designed to allow surface light rail (which takes its power from overhead and can run in streets) to traverse on its new and wider deck. 

"Smart Line" suggested map (website) 

The group couches its old hat in new arguments: Namely that their plan would address the Highway to Nowhere grant which the City received under the title "Reconnecting Communities" and the new West Baltimore MARC station necessitated by the new Amtrak tunnel that is offset from the old B&P tunnel which ends slightly north of the existing MARC station. The reality is, "Smart Rail" Metro would run  in the wide median of the Highway to Nowhere trench just as the Red Line. Transit in the median had been envisioned when that highway monstrosity had originally been designed in the 1970s. 

However, anybody familiar with the 13 years of Red Line planning and design knows, that both, the Highway to Nowhere and the West Baltimore MARC station were already addressed in the original  Red Line plans. T Red Line Community Advisory Groups (SAACs) of Harlem Park, Poppleton and West Baltimore MARC clearly requested mitigation of the US 40 trench and a better MARC station as well. That the new B&P tunnel would push the station further south allowing it to be fully accessible was well known before 2015.  By contrast, the "Smart Line" group shows the station in its current location which is impossible with the new Amtrak tunnels as designed.

the West Baltimore MARC SAAC envisions their future Red line Station to be a regional intermodal transit destination and major TOD opportunity, as well as a commercial center for the surrounding communities. the SAAC is committed to creating a greater sense of place by leveraging the new MARC Station and Red line to foster new development and create a better community...Future development could help make the MARC Station look like a real station. Future development could include the Bentalou school site and various underutilized factory buildings. A transit hub with mixed-use retail and housing surrounding the new platform locations between Franklin Street and Warwick Avenue would connect with the Red line at a plaza located on the current MARC parking lot between Franklin, Mulberry and Smallwood Streets. (Vision Plan)

The "Smart Rail" group makes several other claims in their announcement and on their website that should give any informed person pause, including that: 

• the group "crafted with the guidance and expertise of a volunteer technical advisory team that has, collectively, over a century of experience in bringing city and state transportation projects to fruition". and that 
• the proposed Red Line is a $6 billion project where the tunnel alone is cited as costing $3 billion. The reality is that the people named on the website are not really transit experts, none of them are engineers. The actual cost estimate for the Red Line was slightly under $3 billion assuming cost for the then envisioned construction period after 2015 and including a hefty contingency for the fully nearly engineered tunnels following the stringent rules of the federal transit administration for those estimates. It was Hogan, the Red Line slayer, who always doubted the cost estimate without a shred of evidence that anything on the estimate wasn't on the up and up. 
• The group also claims that their proposal is based on "community desire". In reality none of  the communities of Poppleton, Harlem Park and around the West Baltimore MARC were involved. Those groups have worked for many months as part of the "Reconnecting Communities" grant to be active players in the transformation of the "Highway to Nowhere" in collaboration with the City and the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition. The sole community representative on the "smart line" group is from the Edmondson Avenue corridor. 

In short, the "smart" rail is not so smart after all and essentially nothing but a distraction. The really smart way is to focus on reviving the already engineered and fully studied Red Line and avoiding all additional delays that would come from re-engineering and a completely new environmental impact studies.

Klaus Philipsen FAIA

the article was edited for clarity on 6/5/23

Red Line station in a tunnel. Light Rail can act like a subway in a tunnel but also run in streets and
cross other streets thanks to its overhead wires. Metro style "heavy rail" runs with third rail power precluding
road crossings

When the Smart Rail group asked me to comment on their "Smart Line" concept I wrote them the below response which want to share here:

Thanks for sharing and asking for my thoughts, I realize you are trying once again to mobilize for something different than the previously approved and engineered Red Line. 

That in itself will bring a repeat of where we have been before, splitting the proponents of rail transit investment into competing factions.  This was precisely  why it was easier for Hogan to kill the Red Line than the Purple Line.  At this historic juncture with Biden/ Buttigeg on the federal and Moore and Wiedefeld on the State level as well as the Mayor and the County Exec as Red Line proponents on the local level, asking for anything different than the already engineered Red Line will sow confusion and blunt the effort of getting the project done after all. 

The proposed project is just the same that has been proposed by Gerry Neilly, you and others back when the Red Line was planned and it has been refuted then for the same reasons that are still applicable:Running heavy rail transit from the US 40 corridor into the existing tunnel is neither easy nor cheap. The statement "no new tunnel" is flat-out false, a new tunnel would be indeed, needed. The $1b cost the FAQ states [on your own website]  seems to reflect that. This alignment, even for just phase 1, would need all new engineering and a brand new EIS.  The effort of tying into the existing tunnel would bring serious disruption to the existing Metro service just when it is ready for reliable service after rail and vehicle upgrades. The MTA did develop a "white paper" on this topic.

The proposal appears to be silent on how heavy rail would have to be constructed in the corridor of route 40/Cooks Lane unless it's all tunnel. Heavy rail does not allow at grade crossings and the wider vehicles would not fit into the corridor on the surface. 

The entire burgeoning waterfront area with the redeveloped Perkins Homes and all the other new development would not be connected. 

The heavy rail extensions beyond Hopkins are uncharted territory that have been proposed previously but have not seen engineering or careful analysis. It would be surely easier to create additional MARC stations here than running third rail metro.

The proposal was included as option 3 in the east west corridor study (with the western end as BRT) and did not rank well on several aspects, especially cost (even with BRT instead of heavy rail on the western end). To say the "Smart Rail"  alternative would be "cheaper" or faster than the original Red Line is disingenuous The FAQ segment online mentions in passing a $6b cost for the Red Line as previously proposed, i.e. more than twice the cost that was actually anticipated in 2015, including all contingencies and escalations for the then envisioned construction period. Your $6b cost figure is unsubstantiated and irresponsible. 

Overall I am very disappointed that you guys keep putting out the same old distraction at a time when more than ever we need unity to get something done.

Klaus

Maryland Matters reported about the Baltimore Smart Line here.

A thorough article about the Baltimore Red Line appeared in national publication The American Prospect this month.