Today’s Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore’s Board of Estimates approved $200,000 to help study whether it’s possible to build a trolley to link the Inner Harbor with the Johns Hopkins University.  The Trolley would run from Baltimore’s Inner harbor North through downtown and Mount Vernon, ending in Charles Village.

…an engineering study to examine how the trolley might interfere with utility lines and if the train could make it up the hills of Mount Vernon.

We can put men on the moon, build 1,400 foot tall skyscrapers , and squeeze the Library of Congress onto a drive smaller than a credit card, but Baltimore isn’t sure if they can get a trolley to go up hills.  Of course this is also the city that built a hot air balloon tied to the ground and were surprised when the wind took over and the riders had to be rescued.

More public transportation in Baltimore City - Absolutely.  It’s something the city is desperately lacking.  But why not incorporate this with the existing underused Baltimore metro system.  We recently looked at the current study of the metro red line project.  Why not expand on this?  A separate trolley system would result in yet another disjointed public transportation system that serves only a small portion of the city.  I assume they would built it so that stations connected near one of the existing metro stations downtown. 

Obviously the cost of building an above ground trolley system is on much smaller scale than building additional underground metro lines.  So maybe the city is thinking about this as an interim step.  Do the Hopkins students really need to get to the Harbor that badly? Perhaps a trolley taking them right to Fells Point would make more sense.  Or how about a trolley that runs from Canton through Fells Point, Harbor East, downtown, Federal Hill, ending in Locust Point.  That would save a lot of us some weekend cab fair $.

The city is currently studying a plan to build a 10.5 mile subway project running east to west connecting Canton through downtown and West Baltimore to Woodlawn.  Stops are proposed in Fells Point, downtown, and other highly trafficked areas.  The study and analysis has been under way since 2003, and is scheduled to continue through 2008.  Construction would begin in 2012 and be completed in 2016.  Of course with the way these projects generally evolve, it would be amazing if the Baltimore Red Line became a reality before 2020.

It’s not clear how much of the red line would be above or below ground.  But obviously most of the proposed route would need to be under ground.  The projected route certainly will be connecting some diverse (racially, socially, financially) neighborhoods.  It will be interesting to see what that does to property prices around the new stations.  In DC areas sometimes flourish after metro stops open in that neighborhood.  In many cases close proximity to a metro stop becomes a prerequisite for redeveloping and gentrifying areas.

One of Baltimore’s biggest weaknesses as a city is the lack of good public transportation.  I sometimes have to call and wait 25 minutes for a cab to show up.  And I only live 5 minutes from downtown.  I have lived or worked in the city for close to 8 years, and I have still yet to set foot on the Baltimore metro.  I have never had the need or desire.  With this project Baltimore is certainly heading in the right direction.  With projects like this maybe more Baltimoreans will start to use the cities metro system - or at least realize we have one. 

The much anticipated Key Highway extension (Loop Road) is almost complete.  The extension will connect Key Highway to the tip of Locust Point - at Tide Point.  Apparently the road has been discussed for the last 25 years before the logistics were worked out.  The new road will ease many concerns over traffic problems in Locust Point.

The project already missed it’s published completion date of May 2007.  However, it looks like it could be opening anytime now.  I snapped these photos on Saturday 6/9/2007.