Train Station

Here's my take on the O'Malley-Miller gas tax: Gov. Martin O'Malley and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller had worked it out in a closed-door session that Mr. O'Malley would propose a 15-cent-a-gallon increase in the gas tax and Miller would knock it down to 10 cents. That way, everyone would feel good. But - hello? - where did that $1 billion in dedicated transportation taxes go? Answer: Both parties plundered the money for other projects. This is not about protecting Democratic or Republican turf; it's about the people you were elected to serve.

A man was struck and killed by an outbound Metra train on the Rock Island line at about 12:10 a.m. Monday in southwest suburban Tinley Park, officials said.The collision happened as the train was approaching the Oak Park Avenue train station in the 6700 block of South Street.The victim, described as a man in his 30s, was later pronounced dead, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He remained unidentified this morning. An autopsy is scheduled for later today.Read more in TribLocal test

On a recent Saturday morning, I had an opportunity to ride Amtrak north from Baltimore to Philadelphia. I had not been on a train in something like 13 years, and I was interested to see how I would view the places in Harford and Cecil counties along the rail line from a different perspective. Crossing Bush River into Perryman, I was surprised to see very little had changed, or at least I had that feeling. Other than a few new industrial buildings here and there, and some new homes near the water at Forest Greens, the area looked open and much of it is still being farmed.

You guys are not even ready for this episode. I mean, did you eat today? Then you can't handle it, come back tomorrow. [/internet time swoosh] Okay, let's just dive in. First up: the teams are still in Copenhagen. They taxi to a statue of Hans Christian Andersen. Hans has a plaque on his statue with a short poem on it, and a Roadblocking team member must memorize the poem, bike to a theater and perform the poem for a drama critic. If they mess up, or if they don't infuse it with enough drama, they must bike back to the statue and try again.

"The Maryland Department of Transportation has big plans for a greener, more vibrant neighborhood around the Aberdeen train station, although, as it became clear during Thursday evening's public presentation, those plans are still a long way from becoming reality. " That's how reporter Bryna Zumer began her story in The Record last week about plans to modernize the train station in Aberdeen. It's not the words "greener" or "more vibrant" that stick out in my mind, it's the phrase "those plans are still a long way from becoming reality.

Anyone who has been around long enough to hear the storied history of Aberdeen can attest that if it weren't for the railroads, the city wouldn't be what it is today. Long before there was an Aberdeen Proving Ground, there were train stations in Aberdeen, serving both passengers and those who needed freight hauled to market. Aberdeen may not have been the rail hub Perryville once was, but its whistle stop status didn't hurt its standing a century and then some ago when the community was coming into its own. Strangely, Aberdeen in recent decades has been largely estranged from the rail lines that pass through it. And pass through is mostly what trains do in Aberdeen.

Plans to transform the parking lot at the Savage MARC train station in Howard County into a small community of homes, offices, stores and a hotel are moving closer to fruition, part of Maryland's long effort to redevelop mass-transit parking lots. Construction has not begun on any state-approved "transit-oriented development" projects, though a garage was built at the Owings Mills Metro station in Baltimore County. State transportation officials said that one project proposed at the State Center office complex in downtown Baltimore is expected to get under way this winter.

The Baltimore couple accused of killing cancer researcher Stephen Pitcairn this summer as he walked home from a city train station is scheduled for trial on murder, assault and robbery charges early next year. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. Doory set a trial date of Jan. 26, 2011, for Lavelva Merritt, 24, and John Alexander Wagner, 37. Charging documents claim the pair stabbed Pitcairn, who worked at Johns Hopkins University, and robbed him of his wallet and iPhone on July 25, then left him for dead on the sidewalk in the 2600 block of St. Paul St. A neighbor heard Pitcairn's cries and held the young man as he died, just days before his 24 t h birthday.

About an hour before the Howard County Board of Education heard the proposal Thursday for a new school site near the Dorsey MARC station in Elkridge, a small group of residents protested outside the board's offices, arguing that, among other things, members have not sufficiently reached out for their input. The informal group also argued that the proposed school would be built too close to the rail tracks, concerns also raised by some board members after school planning and facilities executive director Ken Roey outlined the construction plans.

If there was any doubt that Baltimore's legal system is a miserable failure, it should have been put to rest with what we've learned about the murder of Stephen Pitcairn. Late Sunday evening, a day away from his 24th birthday and just back from a visit to his sister in New York, he was walking up St. Paul Street from the train station to his Charles Village apartment. As he walked, he talked on the phone with his mother, Gwen, of Jupiter, Fla., who heard him being accosted, heard a male voice say, "Shut up," and listened as her son was stabbed in the chest despite having turned over his money to his alleged killers.