Why wasn't the Baltimore Regional Rail Plan Earmarked for Stimulus Money?

[Starscream]

I am so frustrated with Baltimore these days. After YEARS of planning for the Regional Rail Plan, it must have been not "Shovel-ready" enough to get stimulus funds. What the $(^#@?

Pardon the rant, but doesn't anyone have any idea why the rail plan wasn't funded?

[skylinefan]

I saw something last night about how many highway construction jobs Maryland predicts will be generated by the economic stimulus package and what projects would benefit from it. I thought I heard something like 16,000 jobs could be created from the stimulus package. Governor O'Malley stated that only projects that are ready to go like repaving, lane widening and light rail would benefit from this infusion of federal dollars. When he states light rail I was not sure if he was referring to the light rail project from Montgomery County to Prince Georges County or upgrading Balitmore's light rail system. It sort of sounds like the heavy rail project from Baltimore to Washington is still in the concept stage.

[Starscream]

Actually, I was referring to the local Baltimore component of the regional rail plan (the extension of the metro to White Marsh, the new red line from Woodlawn to Dundalk, the new Yellow Line from Timonium to Penn Station (along York Rd.), and extensions of the Light Rail into Columbia).

[monsoon]

I don't think any regional rail plans were directly supported by the stimulus bill. If you take the amount requested by all regional transit agencies in the country it would have added tens of billions more to the bill. Miami alone asked for close to $6B dollars and it's system is very underutilized. Rather than to get into the arguments over these specific projects, they instead decided to increase funding to the New Starts program and put the money into national rail.

[The Voice of Reason]

From everything I have read, the senate compromises with the republicans cut billions out of mass transit and energy reform.

the good thing is that there are other ways to fund transit and I think if your project missed the deadline for this bill (Like the commuter rail in Hartford did) than as long as you can push the project along, we have 4 years of a pro mass transit administration, and there will be opther opportunities to fund.

from wikipedia a breakdown of the final bill

Transportation projects

Total: $48.76 billion^[23]

• $27.5 billion for highway and bridge construction projects

• $8 billion for high-speed rail projects

• $6.9 billion for new equipment for public transportation projects

• $1.5 billion for competitive grants to state and local governments for transportation investments

• $1.3 billion for Amtrak

• $1.1 billion for improving airport security

• $750 million for the construction of new public rail transportation systems

• $750 million for the maintenance of existing public transportation systems

• $720 million for improving security at the border and ports of entry

• $240 million for the maintenance of United States Coast Guard facilities

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