OPINION:
Show me a neighborhood with easy access to transportation, and I will show you a neighborhood that thrives. Show me a state that chooses to invest in transportation, and I will show you a state that leads. In each of America’s most influential cities and states, policymakers developed a strategic plan to make transportation accessible for alland they executed it.
My administration entered office guided by the promise that we would leave no one behind. To live up to the full meaning of that pledge, we must expand transportation options across our state to ensure all Marylanders can get from where they live to where opportunity liesno matter their background, zip code, or income. While we understand the importance of fixing and making safe our roads and bridges, we need to think beyond cars and start investing in public transportation that benefits everyone.
For me, this mission isn’t based on a thought experimentit’s rooted in the lived experiences of communities I’ve seen and known. Eight years ago, state government pulled the plug on the Baltimore Red Line, a groundbreaking transit project to connect historically underserved neighborhoods with growing job centers in the region. State money that should have gone toward construction was diverted to repave roads. Nearly one billion dollars in federal funding reserved for the project was handed back to the U.S. Treasury.
The decision to kill the Baltimore Red Line killed economic growth, opportunity, and prosperity. It’s a cautionary tale on the ripple effects of policies to build up or break down public transportation. When you deprive people of physical mobility, you deprive them of economic mobility too.
In my first six months as governor, I restarted the Baltimore Red Line, and my team and I are working closely with community leaders to ensure we build on the progress that had already been made before the project died. But we need to do more than right the wrongs of the past, we need to blaze our own trail.
One of my first acts as governor was to invest $450 million toward the new Frederick Douglass Tunnel in Baltimore. This local, state, and federal project will replace a 150-year-old bottleneck and result in faster, more reliable Amtrak and commuter rail service between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The project will also generate up to 30,000 good-paying jobs in Maryland.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Transportation 2023: How the U.S. is leading, commuting, and exploring
In addition, my administration is currently looking at options to expand the service of Maryland Area Commuter Railcalled MARC. Maryland has entered agreements with Virginia and Delaware to explore a potential extension of MARC into Alexandria and Newark. We’re equally excited about moving forward with the Purple Line, a transformative, sixteen-mile, twenty-one-station, all-electric light rail line to provide better and more equitable access to transit and reduce vehicle emissions around the National Capital Region.
We have a lot of work to do. But I’ve never been more optimistic about our future, because we are moving in partnership with extraordinary leaders at all levels of governmentincluding our talented congressional delegation. We’ve already worked together to bring millions of federal dollars to Maryland to benefit rail projects, bus lanes, and infrastructure for folks who travel by bike or electric vehicle.
But we are just getting started. President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest federal investment in public transportation in United States history. I intend to do whatever it takes to ensure Maryland wins every federal dollar we can.
I am confident that this is Maryland’s decade, but I also want to work together with partners across the DMV to ensure everyone benefits from what we’re doing in our state. Transportation is the conduit to our future, and wise choices now will spur the economic prosperity we seek.
• Wes Moore is the 63rd Governor of the state of Maryland. Born in Takoma Park, he is Maryland’s first Black Governor. He built and launched a Baltimore-based business called BridgeEdU to aid underserved students for long-term success. He is a graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy and College, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and of Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in international relations and economics. He was the first Black Rhodes Scholar in the history of Johns Hopkins and earned a Master’s in international relations from Wolfson College at Oxford. In 2005, he deployed to Afghanistan as a captain with the 82nd Airborne Division, and served as a White House Fellow upon returning home.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.