WASHINGTON — Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan’s priorities include building a new American Legion Bridge, and a magnetic levitation train between Washington and Baltimore, but do not include Metro.
Hogan met with Trump administration officials Wednesday, in part to effort federal support for future transportation projects, according to The Washington Post.
Maryland’s governor had not planned on making his list of transportation priorities public, but they were eventually obtained through a public records request by Del. C. William Frick, D-Montgomery and shared with the Post.
The American Legion Bridge, built in 1963, has been called “inadequate” by Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn, who deferred questions about the list to Hogan.
Hogan’s list of priorities do not include Metro, or the Purple Line light-rail project connecting Prince George’s with Montgomery County.
Also left off the list is the Corridor Cities Transitway project, which would provide bus rapid-transit between Clarksburg and the Shady Grove Metro stop, as a way of relieving congestion on I-270.
“In terms of the regional conversation about priorities, I think most Montgomery County leaders would think of those as being more important than the American Legion Bridge at this point,” Frick told the Post.
According to Hogan’s list, a private developer is proposing to build and operate the maglev train system, which “will operate at 311 mph and take only 15 minutes to travel between” D.C. and Baltimore.
Other priorities for Hogan include widening Interstate 81 in Western Maryland from four lanes to six.
