Green Line

It's not just because yesterday was my birthday - thank you, yes, being another year older does beat the alternative - that I've been imagining my future self lately. It's more because on Friday I picked up a map of the future Baltimore Regional Rail System, a dazzling if at this point mostly fictional depiction of a multi-colored, many-tentacled thing that would ferry passengers to all manner of hither and yon in the greater metro area. I envisioned myself hopping onto a train to check out the new Isaac Mizrahis at the Mondawmin Target (Green Line)

The Maryland Public Service Commission's ongoing review of the proposed merger of Constellation Energy Group and Exelon Corp. has uncovered numerous pros and cons for the Baltimore-area consumer, from the loss of a corporate headquarters to the proposed one-time $100 credit on consumer bills. Much more testimony remains to be heard. But if there's one wrinkle to emerge from last week's hearings that demands a PSC response, it's this: Exelon appears interested in investing more in Maryland-based renewable power.

CHICAGO - President Bush signed the $286.5 billion transportation bill yesterday, saying it would ease traffic congestion throughout the United States, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and impose stricter vehicular safety standards that will save lives. But critics said the legislation was stuffed with unnecessary and expensive projects that benefited only members of Congress seeking hometown support. Maryland will receive $2.9 billion in highway funding and more than $900 million in designated mass transit funding.

Baltimore kicked off its newest version of free downtown bus service Monday morning as the Charm City Circulators began service on its Orange Route from Hollins Market to Harbor East via downtown. Making one of her last public appearances before her resignation takes effect next month, Mayor Sheila Dixon hailed the circulator – which uses hybrid diesel-electric buses to reduce emissions -- as a way to reduce single-operator vehicle traffic downtown. "It's going to be cleaner and greener and it's really going to help us move downtown," she said at a news conference at the Convention Center.

The large number of new federal jobs expected to move to the Fort Meade area should provide the impetus for an extension of the Washington Metro's Green Line to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, says one area lawmaker. If the line were extended to BWI, it would result in a connection between the Washington and Baltimore mass transit systems. Currently, Baltimore's light rail system goes to BWI, but the D.C. subway stops in Greenbelt, about 20 miles away. Sen. John A. Giannetti, a Democrat who represents Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties, wants to remedy that.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Growing up in the middle of a civil war, with his city turned into a battlefield, bullets flying, neighbors disappearing, Yaser Abun-Nasr made sense of it as well as a 10-year-old boy could. He collected bullets. Hundreds of bullets. Probably a thousand before he tired of it. He learned the rhythm of war, how the shelling would start in the evening when the fighters got home from work, how that was the time for children to stop playing and go home and take cover. He grew up knowing children should not have to live like that.

JERUSALEM -- In their latest dispute over the building of new Jewish settlements, Israel and the United States have focused attention on a border that remains crystal clear in international diplomacy despite Israel's concerted efforts to erase it on the ground.In recent weeks Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy have given new importance to the Green Line, the border dividing Israel from the territories itcaptured in the 1967 Six Day War, specifically where it divides the city of Jerusalem.

State Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said yesterday that he has directed department officials to begin studying a possible extension of the Baltimore Metro, which ends at Johns Hopkins Hospital, to the Beltway northeast of the city. Flanagan told the city's House delegation yesterday that he believes the subway's Green Line could be extended beyond Morgan State University, which would have been the eastern terminus of the subway under previous plans. The transportation secretary said an extension to the Baltimore Beltway would attract riders.

Baltimore kicked off its newest version of free downtown bus service Monday morning as the Charm City Circulators began service on its Orange Route from Hollins Market to Harbor East via downtown. Making one of her last public appearances before her resignation takes effect next month, Mayor Sheila Dixon hailed the circulator – which uses hybrid diesel-electric buses to reduce emissions -- as a way to reduce single-operator vehicle traffic downtown. "It's going to be cleaner and greener and it's really going to help us move downtown," she said at a news conference at the Convention Center.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The two major rival clan leaders i Somalia have agreed to abolish the so-called Green Line dividing their forces in this capital and to allow U.S. troops to occupy the entire city, it was announced yesterday.The pact presages an increase in the presence of U.S. forces in north Mogadishu and a more aggressive attitude by the U.S.-led, United Nations-sponsored force here toward confiscating heavy weapons."I think you will see in the next several days the removal of all heavy weapons from north Mogadishu and the removal of all vestiges of the Green Line," said a senior U.S. official who had a hand in setting up the talks between warlords Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid.

It's not just because yesterday was my birthday - thank you, yes, being another year older does beat the alternative - that I've been imagining my future self lately. It's more because on Friday I picked up a map of the future Baltimore Regional Rail System, a dazzling if at this point mostly fictional depiction of a multi-colored, many-tentacled thing that would ferry passengers to all manner of hither and yon in the greater metro area. I envisioned myself hopping onto a train to check out the new Isaac Mizrahis at the Mondawmin Target (Green Line)

You keep hearing about the American love affair with private vehicles, but the reaction to the Feb. 12 Getting There column suggests many motorists would love to jilt the family car if effective alternatives were available. More than a dozen e-mails responded to a report on a little-known seven-day public transit link between Baltimore and Washington. As usual, readers were able to add new layers of useful information. Others just sent a box of much-appreciated ego candy. "Thank you so much for this article," wrote Catriona M. K. MacLeod, a professor at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

The large number of new federal jobs expected to move to the Fort Meade area should provide the impetus for an extension of the Washington Metro's Green Line to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, says one area lawmaker. If the line were extended to BWI, it would result in a connection between the Washington and Baltimore mass transit systems. Currently, Baltimore's light rail system goes to BWI, but the D.C. subway stops in Greenbelt, about 20 miles away. Sen. John A. Giannetti, a Democrat who represents Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties, wants to remedy that.

CHICAGO - President Bush signed the $286.5 billion transportation bill yesterday, saying it would ease traffic congestion throughout the United States, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and impose stricter vehicular safety standards that will save lives. But critics said the legislation was stuffed with unnecessary and expensive projects that benefited only members of Congress seeking hometown support. Maryland will receive $2.9 billion in highway funding and more than $900 million in designated mass transit funding.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Growing up in the middle of a civil war, with his city turned into a battlefield, bullets flying, neighbors disappearing, Yaser Abun-Nasr made sense of it as well as a 10-year-old boy could. He collected bullets. Hundreds of bullets. Probably a thousand before he tired of it. He learned the rhythm of war, how the shelling would start in the evening when the fighters got home from work, how that was the time for children to stop playing and go home and take cover. He grew up knowing children should not have to live like that.

State Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said yesterday that he has directed department officials to begin studying a possible extension of the Baltimore Metro, which ends at Johns Hopkins Hospital, to the Beltway northeast of the city. Flanagan told the city's House delegation yesterday that he believes the subway's Green Line could be extended beyond Morgan State University, which would have been the eastern terminus of the subway under previous plans. The transportation secretary said an extension to the Baltimore Beltway would attract riders.

From an ambitious plan to more than double rail service in the Baltimore region over the next 40 years, two major projects have emerged as priorities. An advisory committee, which approved the overall plan yesterday, urged the state to move forward with an east-west rail line between Fells Point and the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn. In addition, it recommended an extension of the current subway system, taking it north from Johns Hopkins Hospital to Morgan State University.

You keep hearing about the American love affair with private vehicles, but the reaction to the Feb. 12 Getting There column suggests many motorists would love to jilt the family car if effective alternatives were available. More than a dozen e-mails responded to a report on a little-known seven-day public transit link between Baltimore and Washington. As usual, readers were able to add new layers of useful information. Others just sent a box of much-appreciated ego candy. "Thank you so much for this article," wrote Catriona M. K. MacLeod, a professor at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

From an ambitious plan to more than double rail service in the Baltimore region over the next 40 years, two major projects have emerged as priorities. An advisory committee, which approved the overall plan yesterday, urged the state to move forward with an east-west rail line between Fells Point and the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn. In addition, it recommended an extension of the current subway system, taking it north from Johns Hopkins Hospital to Morgan State University.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The two major rival clan leaders i Somalia have agreed to abolish the so-called Green Line dividing their forces in this capital and to allow U.S. troops to occupy the entire city, it was announced yesterday.The pact presages an increase in the presence of U.S. forces in north Mogadishu and a more aggressive attitude by the U.S.-led, United Nations-sponsored force here toward confiscating heavy weapons."I think you will see in the next several days the removal of all heavy weapons from north Mogadishu and the removal of all vestiges of the Green Line," said a senior U.S. official who had a hand in setting up the talks between warlords Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid.