Baltimore To DC In 15 Minutes, Maglev Plan Moving Forward
BALTIMORE (WJZ)--Moving closer to high speed rail.
Funding has been approved to study whether to bring one of the fastest trains in the world here to Maryland.
WJZ's Meghan McCorkell has more.
15 minutes. That's how fast experts say the maglev train could get from Baltimore to D.C.
Nearly $28-million in federal funding is now approved to study the 300 mile per hour rail line to the East Coast.
The actual price tag to build the D.C. to Baltimore line: $10-12 billion.
Governor Larry Hogan, a proponent of the rail system, after riding one in Japan, says there's tremendous benefits.
Congressman Elijah Cummings says he supports any project that could bring more mass transit to our region.
"We are trying to develop our city. Trying to bring thousands of jobs and bring businesses so that people can have jobs," he said.
Plans include running the line from D.C. to Baltimore and ultimately up to New York, which would be 45 minutes from here.
The news comes as a new report card grading Central Maryland's Transportation options delivers some pretty dismal results.
For commute time, Baltimore gets a "D".
Congestion, another "D".
And access to transit: "D".
One commuter, Steven Foster, says, "The way everything is designed, it's not designed to get people from point A to point B."
Now, officials are hoping to turn that around with a high speed option that may bring more people to Baltimore.
Even if the funding and plans get approved, it could be more than a decade before the trains are operational here.
The nearly $28-million approved by the feds will be used to study planning and engineering for the system.
