Light rail line in southern Maryland needed now more than ever

Eleven Hopedale residents have managed to put a land agreement with a short line railroader on pause.

A Bloomberg News analysis is calling the commute between southern Maryland and Washington, D.C., the biggest money and time pit in the U.S. Maryland state legislators now want answers, but those answers are going to cost a lot of money … and have taken a lot of time to develop.

Bloomberg News says commuters in the D.C. Metro area waste more time and money than anyone else in the country following its analysis of 2019 census data. Maryland lawmakers are now demanding that the state spend at least $27 million on solutions to the traffic congestion. A 2017 study suggested Maryland should cut the ribbon on a $2 billion light rail project that would connect Charles and Prince George’s county residents to the Metro at Branch Avenue in Washington, D.C. Almost three years later and not a dime has been put up for the endeavor.

Maryland State Sen. Arthur Ellis claims the light rail project is at the bottom of the state’s transportation priorities. Ellis also says 77 percent of workers in Charles County, a county he represents, commute into and out of Washington, D.C., daily.

A Southern Maryland Rapid Transit study done almost 23 years ago also suggested a high-capacity transit system was needed because the current transportation system was not adequate to support existing and planned development. The study recommended an 18-mile light rail line with 13 stations to be built in the median of S.R. 301 and S.R. 5 in southern Maryland.

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