NEWS
By Michael Dresser | August 10, 2009
While the effort to improve Baltimore's transit system passed an important milestone last week when Gov. Martin O'Malley selected a specific plan for an east-west light rail line, The Battle of the Red Line is far from over. Residents in Canton and other areas along the route vow to keep fighting the $1.6 billion plan, which they regard as an assault on the peace, parking and property values in their neighborhoods. And there are two likely battlefields. "I expect it to play out in Annapolis and in Washington," said Ben Rosenberg, a Canton resident and leader of the anti-Red Line forces.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser | June 23, 2009
With the National Transportation Safety Board taking over the investigation of Monday's fatal crash of two trains on the Washington Metro's Red Line, the federal investigation and the capital's transit system will open a new chapter in a long and contentious relationship. For more than a quarter-century, the NTSB has been a persistent critic of the management and operations of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Administration - the regional agency that operates the subway system.
NEWS
By Paul West | May 23, 2009
WASHINGTON - Maryland senators are seeking more than $1.4 billion this year in earmarked federal spending for hundreds of special-interest projects, according to first-ever public disclosure reports. Big-ticket items on the senators' wish lists include the Chesapeake Bay, transportation and government construction projects. The Democrats also want to steer more than $170 million combined to private defense contractors. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin has filed requests totaling $1.14 billion, and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski is asking for $942.
NEWS
May 7, 2009
Witness, jury intimidation shows need for reform The paper's Page One story concerning an act of witness intimidation ("Courtroom threat shakes witness, jury," May 5) should be of concern to every citizen in the United States. It is obvious in the area of criminal law we are faced with 21st century crimes but practicing 19th and 20th century criminal law practice and procedures. This must change! The governor or legislature should convene a committee to review conditions as they exist today and what can be done to improve, if not correct, what we are experiencing.
NEWS
July 26, 2008
A bus rider driven to drive I just can't wait to fill up my tank again. Seventy bucks. Who cares? I'm not wealthy by any means. I'm merely a young civil servant. But because the Maryland Transit Administration can't figure out a way to get me from my home in the city to my job in the county (at a certain government agency where I have more than 6,000 co-workers, the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn) in less than about 60 minutes (for a distance of 6 miles), driving is certainly better than the bus. I love public transit, conservation, reducing my carbon footprint, bicycles and all of that green stuff.
NEWS
By JAY HANCOCK | July 13, 2008
From vacation in France ... Paris has the best subway system I've ever used. Trains go anywhere you want. (Even the snooty 8th arrondisement. No black holes for rich neighborhoods, such as for Georgetown in the D.C. metro system. And they run frequently. We haven't waited more than four minutes for a subway all week. READ JAY'S BLOG For Jay Hancock's take on local business news that affects you, read him daily at baltimoresun.com/blogs Even better: the Velib system for bike rentals.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser | June 8, 2008
It was June 2001, and the price of a gallon of regular gasoline had soared to $1.68 a gallon. It was so ridiculous that many folks said to heck with it, we'll take mass transit. And they did. There were 5 million more transit trips taken in the United States that month than the previous June. But by June 2002, with travel curtailed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, gas was down to a less burdensome $1.39. Public transit lost 23 million rides from the same month a year before as commuters returned to their cars.
NEWS
May 11, 2008
Past time to invest in improved transit I find it fascinating that in all the years I've sat in traffic on Interstate 83 or Interstate 695 or Light Street, sometimes for 15, 30, 60 minutes, I've never seen an article referring to the cars packed on our region's highways, going nowhere fast, as sardines ("Angry sardines," May 8). I think there is a clear bias here. Why can we sit patiently in traffic but are "frustrated and irritated," as Michael Dresser put it, waiting for the light rail?
NEWS
By Gerald Neily | April 16, 2008
On May 10, Baltimore is sponsoring a "summit" to discuss the Red Line - a rail transit project proposed to connect Bayview, Fells Point, downtown, Edmondson Village and Security/Woodlawn. One thinks of a summit as an exclusive affair attended by heads of state and other top officials, but this particular summit is open to everyone - even you and me - so we must wonder whether issues crucial to the city's future will really be addressed. Then we must think about the rail transit system we've built in Baltimore.
NEWS
By Alicia Lozano | July 12, 2007
LONDON -- Four men convicted of conspiracy to murder were sentenced yesterday to life in prison for their part in failed suicide bombings on London's transit system in 2005. Each must serve a minimum of 40 years before being eligible for parole. Woolwich Crown Court said two other defendants will be retried in the July 21, 2005, attempts. No date has been set. During sentencing, Judge Adrian Fulford linked the botched attacks to London transit bombings two weeks earlier that killed 52 people.