Baltimore – Washington D.C. Maglev

Baltimore-Washington, DC Maglev
Overview
Type	Maglev
Status	Proposed
Locale	Baltimore, Maryland, Anne Arundel County, MD Washington, D.C.
Termini	Camden Station (North) Union Station (South)
Stations	3
Operation
Character	At-grade, elevated, and underground
Technical
Line length	40 mi (64.4 km)

The Baltimore – Washington D.C. Maglev project is a proposal from the United States cities of Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. to build a 39.8 miles (64.1 km) maglev train system between their respective central business districts.

Proposed construction and progress of project

Section 1218 of the "Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century" created a National Magnetic Levitation Transportation Technology Deployment Program. The program is administered by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), a unit of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The objective of the program is to demonstrate high-speed maglev technology in commercial service through a project of about 40 miles in length, so that it can be considered later in the century for implementation in a longer distance intercity corridor application. Section 1218 envisioned $1 billion in federal funding for a single demonstration system which must be matched by other sources 2 to 1. FRA selected seven projects for further study in May 1999, and they received $55 million in further funding to develop their proposals. Of these seven, Baltimore-Washington and Pittsburgh advanced to next stage as semi-finalists in April 2001.^[1] Federal funding of the project development continued through fiscal year 2004. However, due to legislation passed by the State of Maryland in 2004, the Baltimore-Washington project dropped out and did not receive federal funding for fiscal year 2005. Instead, the program funded Pittsburgh and a line between Las Vegas and Anaheim in fiscal year 2005, with all federal funding removed from the program after that year.^[2] The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 revived federal funding of intercity high-speed rail, particularly in the context of the Las Vegas to Anaheim route.

Proposed stations for the bid include Hilton Baltimore, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Union Station in Washington D.C.^[3] The construction plans for the Hilton Baltimore allocate a specific amount of space underground for a maglev station.

A maglev would have made the transportation infrastructure of the two cities more appealing to the United States Olympic Committee. The cities lost in their joint 2012 Olympic bid; however, representatives from the two cities have stated that they are interested in a joint bid for the 2024 Olympics.^[4]

The project received federal approval for a continued funding study in January 2001. The project issued a DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) and public hearings were scheduled for December 8–16, 2003 and online comments were being accepted until January 30, 2004. The project is still in planning stages and has not received any approval beyond funding study. The project hit legislative snags in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Funding for the project was uncertain as of November 2006. Maryland Senate Bill (SB508) passed in 2004, forbids the state spending any money from any source for the purpose of studying, developing or constructing a maglev system in the state.^[5]

The Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2005 allows the Department of Transportation to spend up to $1,000,000 in federal funds for the purpose of completing a final environmental impact statement on a magnetic levitation transportation (MAGLEV) system. The state refusal to fund the system may make it difficult for Baltimore to get federal approval for construction. Also in 2005 the project had not completed a final environmental impact statement to send to the federal government.^[6]

In 2009, the Maryland Department of Transportation released "Maryland's FY 2009-2014 Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP)" document which is divided into different PDF documents.^[7] In the "Maryland Transportation Administration" document^[8] on page 42, marked "Page MTA-38" in the lower-right hand corner is a listing for the Maglev System Study which lists under description: "Feasibility study and preparation of environmental documentation involved with operating magnetic levitation trains between Baltimore and Washington, with a stop at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport." the justification section is very interesting in that the Maryland Transit Administration has received "special federal funding as part of a national demonstration of Maglev technology" it continued that "if feasibility is demonstrated, Maglev could provide rapid and efficient transportation between Baltimore, Washington, and BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport." The current status of the project is that it has completed the DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) phase and completed an "environmental reevaluation."The CTP states that from the MAGLEV project's start through 2008, $16,868,000 was expended in planning with $12,973,000 coming from the federal government (which matches the $13 million reported on the FRA site.^[2]) For fiscal year 2009, the CTP allocates $100,000 for planning. There is a note at the end stated that the City of Baltimore contributed $100,000 for the Maglev System Study project.

In November 2013 the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, proposed fully financing a high-speed maglev link between Baltimore and Washington DC to president Obama.^[9]

References

External links

• The Baltimore-Washington Maglev Project
• Maryland General Assembly Home Page
• Maglev pictures and technical information by the International Maglev Board