Baltimore Skyline

Baltimore Sun map from 1930s The Streetcar Subway: In the 1920s Baltimore floated the idea of burying its streetcar lines under downtown with a loop underneath Fayette and Baltimore Street. Streetcar lines along Pennsylvania Ave, St. Paul Street, and Gay Street would have funneled into tunnels at North Ave with lines from the west going into a tunnel under Baltimore Street, from the east under Eastern Ave along Patterson Park and through Fells Point, from the south under Hanover street through Federal Hill.  This would have created a very extensive subway system in central Baltimore, and would have in all likelihood, like Boston, SF, and Philadelphia saved much of the streetcar network. If this scenario had played out, places like Penn Station, Patterson Park, and the northeast would have been a quick underground trolley ride away from downtown.  Metro Subway to BWI: The original plan for the for the Baltimore metro called for a spoke-and-wheel system very much like t...

In the long term planning, the MTA wants to extend the Light Rail (dubbed the Yellow Line) passed BWI all the way to Columbia, connecting the BWI Rail Station and Dorsey MARC station along the way. I honestly do not think extending the route to Columbia is the best choice. Instead how about extending just to Dorsey. The spur from BWI Business District to the international terminal should be abandoned and This ROW used for a people mover that would connect the parking garages, long term parking, and the terminal with the light rail station.  Adding infill stations along the route the current route would allow for better access to more communities. The station platforms at Texas are already there; a new park-and-ride station can be added here pretty easily. Walk-up stations should be considered at Ruxton along Bellona Avenue and Remington/Hampden at Wyman Park Drive  to access neighborhoods that are currently bypassed. This last station could provide better access to Druid ...

Tower crane going up alongside the Four Seaons Hotel in Harbor East. Could the long awaited condos finally be on the way, or just more hotel rooms? In any case the revised plan only puts the building at a few more floors, or only as tall as the Legg Mason Building next door. 

The Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda of the Red Line: Part of 2002 transit plan When the Red Line was first proposed in 2002 the decision on the exact route and transportation mode were far from certain. We all know what decision was eventually made, but direction the line took could have turned out much different. A definite missed opportunity was not pursuing a heavy rail option and thinking of the current metro subway as a trunk line that a spur line could split off from. With this in mind the Red Line planners could have built a spur using the a Route 40 ROW - which the current plan calls for - from West Baltimore MARC with stops in Harlem Park and UMB, before turning south and connecting with the metro subway at Lexington Market. Here a proper transportation hub and transfer point could have been built as intended. The line would have allowed for a direct connection to downtown and Johns Hopkins Hospital while using available infrastructure. A small spur, with high capacity, for m...

New sign along S. Calvert Street. New sign is up at the future home of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company at 7 S. Calvert Street (historically 202 E. Redwood Street) originally built in 1885 for the Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company.  as the home of the  Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company, ca. 1958

2002 Baltimore Rail Plan The 2002 Baltimore Rail Plan, besides planning for brand new routes, also envisioned expansion and reimagining of current routes. One of which was the Camden Line. The 2002 plan proposed expanding service to include local, more frequent service between Dorsey and Camden Station, in addition to the current commuter service to Union Station. While the plan did not go into very much detail it did include infill stations, and presumably "light rail" style frequencies. As things go, this never made it past the drawing board as the Red Line got the priority and maybe the Green Line extension next. This doesn't mean we shouldn't think about how to better use the Camden Line. In fact, with the infrastructure already there it really is a good option to provide better transit service to Baltimore. So let's say there is both funding and the full cooperation of CSX, with that in mind let me propose that we do exactly what the 2002 plan recommen...

photo by Baltimore Business Journal Collapse of section of 26th Street between St. Paul and N. Charles spilling mud, debris, and cars down on to the CSX (old B&O Belt Line) tracks in Charles Village. The Jones Falls has also flooded in Mt Washington and along Falls Rd near Penn Station and the Streetcar Museum.