Maglev

Waving signs that read "MTA - go another way" and "Maglev, Shmaglev," more than 100 Linthicum residents protested yesterday outside Lindale Middle School as state officials inside outlined plans for the hotly contested high-speed train. Maglev, a 250-mph train that would ferry passengers from Baltimore to Washington in 16 minutes, is not a certainty for the region. Maryland has been trying to win the right to build the train - and the $950 million in federal money to help pay for it - since the Federal Railroad Administration announced in 1992 that the funds were available.

A story in Sunday's editions of The Sun about efforts to bring a government-financed magnetic levitation train system to the Washington-Baltimore corridor incorrectly identified Maryland Economic Growth Associates. MEGA is a division of the Maryland Business Council, a private, non-profit organization that receives no public funding.The Sun regrets the error.Hoping to lure a federal prototype that could be worth nearly a billion dollars, state officials plan to hire a consultant to study routes for a magnetic levitation train that would link Baltimore and Washington.

BALTIMORE IS IN the finals again -- and this time it has nothing to do with football. The city -- with its partner, Washington -- is one of two remaining contenders for the nation's first magnetic-levitation train line. Our 300-mph train would get passengers from Camden Yards to Union Station in D.C. in 16 minutes, according to the Maryland Department or Transportation's plans. The other finalist is Pittsburgh, which proposes to build a line from its airport to the city and suburbs. The finalists will split $14 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct more studies.

Some of Maryland's top elected officials will journey to Washington this afternoon with expectations high that the state is among the finalists for the national magnetic levitation train project. The governor, lieutenant governor and both U.S. senators, among others, received invitations yesterday to attend an announcement at 3 p.m., and some were making plans to attend. "We know it's a possibility, but that's all we know; they've been very tight-lipped about the whole thing," Erin Henson, a spokeswoman in the Maryland Department of Transportation, said late yesterday.

Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari recently spoke with Richard C. Gross, editor of the Opinion Commentary page, at the offices of The Sun about transportation issues affecting the Baltimore area. Q: How do you improve the interaction of different types of public transportation in the Baltimore area to attract more passengers? A: First you make it physically easier to get between the systems. In some cases, that may be sidewalks, elevators or escalators. You also make it easier for our traveling public to understand how to use this system.

Maryland transportation officials have shifted the possible route of a proposed Maglev train through southern Howard County to minimize contact with the Rouse Co.'s upscale Emerson development, but the move hasn't mollified opponents. Some local politicians say they're more vehemently opposed than before, contending that regardless of alignment, the train is far too expensive, does too little and would disrupt county neighborhoods. "It appears the real focus of this is to help people flying into BWI [Airport]

Linthicum residents never saw this train coming - through their back yards. Sure, they'd heard talk about maglev, the 250-mph super-train that would connect Baltimore, Washington and the airport in between. The train could clinch the 2012 Olympic Games, ferrying visitors to crab houses and soccer matches around the region. But few knew until last month how far along plans for maglev had come, or that the routes the Maryland Transit Administration mapped would run right through their cul-de-sacs.

The logic seems inescapable. Baltimore County last year granted the state $60,000 that the state didn't spend to study a proposed magnetic levitation train that wouldn't even go to Baltimore County. To boot, the counties the train would go through and one it would stop in, Anne Arundel, haven't spent a dime on the thing. So when Baltimore County auditors looked for possible cuts in the fiscal 2002 budget, to be approved this month, they found plenty of reasons to recommend against the $100,000 earmarked for the study this year.

Linthicum residents never saw this train coming - through their back yards. Sure, they'd heard talk about maglev, the 250-mph super train that would connect Baltimore, Washington and the airport in between. The train could clinch the 2012 Olympic Games, ferrying visitors to crab houses and soccer matches around the region. But few knew until last month how far along plans for maglev had come, or that the routes the Maryland Transit Administration mapped would run right through their cul-de-sacs.

The speedy Maglev train that Maryland officials are promoting as a new East Coast transportation option could be years from construction, if it is ever built, but it has Howard County officials and developers blinking. To the surprise of local leaders, state transportation planners drew one of three alternative routes through Emerson, a huge mixed-use Rouse Co. planned community along Interstate 95 near Savage, where $400,000 to $500,000 homes are beginning to rise. State and county politicians - usually friendly to new rail transit plans - are turning against Maglev, arguing that it would be a waste of money and would do nothing for Howard County except bring trouble.