O’Malley: Baltimore Transit Comes First

Buried in the details of the state’s recent $1.1 billion cut to transportation spending is a crucial fact: the O’Malley administration has decided that Baltimore’s Red Line is a higher priority than either of Montgomery County’s proposed new transit lines.

Of course, this is not obvious from Secretary of Transportation John Porcari’s press release, which states, “The Baltimore Red Line and both the Purple Line and the Corridor Cities Transitway in the Washington region remain on track. Funding levels will allow each project to be ready to compete in the federal New Starts transit program next spring.” But the prioritization of the Red Line can be seen in the revised project list released by the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT).

The state’s Consolidated Transportation Program (CTP) is a six-year capital spending plan that is updated annually. All projects are assigned spending levels in each of the relevant years and in functional categories including planning, engineering, right-of-way and construction. In January 2008, the CTP was updated to include new money approved by the General Assembly after the special session. At that time, the spending plans for Baltimore’s Red Line, Montgomery-Prince George’s Counties’ Purple Line and Montgomery’s Corridor Cities Transitway were:


The numbers above clearly show that even before last week’s cuts, the Red Line was due to receive more money than the Purple Line and the CCT combined. And unlike the Montgomery projects, the Red Line was budgeted for both right-of-way acquisition and actual construction.

The newly revised project list made the following cuts in total spending on the three transit lines. Negative numbers indicate increases.


Under the state’s revised plan, the Red Line would actually get a spending increase of $8,928,000 through 2012. It would take a cut of $41.57 million in 2013 before getting an increase of $15 million in 2014. The Purple Line would get a spending increase of $763,000 in 2009-2010 before taking big cuts starting in 2011. The CCT would get an increase of $207,000 in 2009 before receiving cuts from 2010 on.

The chart below shows the new spending plan after taking into account last week’s announced cuts:


The cut percentages for the three lines are 7% for the Red Line, 19% for the Purple Line and 47% for the CCT. These percentages as well as the distribution of funds from 2010 through 2013 point to an inescapable conclusion: the O’Malley administration has determined that the Red Line will come first, the Purple Line will come second and the CCT, with nearly half its funding eliminated, may never come at all.

During the special session, the O’Malley administration promised the Montgomery County statehouse delegation $55 million for school construction – an amount that was subsequently cut to $46.3 million. Also at that time, the administration promised funding support for transit in Montgomery County. While the state transportation revenue shortfall made cuts necessary, the above data shows that those cuts are falling disproportionately on Montgomery's transit projects despite the administration’s assurances.

Now, what will be the response from the Montgomery County delegation?