A Modest Proposal: How to Bring Trains Back to Annapolis, MD... Maybe...

Comments · 217

• JO

  @jonathanstensberg · 1 year ago

  The most realistic part of this proposal is immediately assuming planners would reject a previously-used right of way for, you know, reasons.

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• JO

  @jonathanstensberg · 1 year ago

  “Since light rail can’t run on metro tracks and vice versa.”<br><br><b>laughs in Cleveland</b>

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• MI

  @michaelwasiljov8633 · 1 year ago

  Originally from Baltimore and back in the 90&apos;s they thought about running the Light Rail all the way to Annapolis on the old B and A right of way, but nimby&apos;s killed it.

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• WI

  @wintermath3173 · 8 months ago

  A year later, they are now looking at replacing the Chesapeake bay bridge. If only they would consider adding rail across the bay.

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• VA

  @variand103 · 1 year ago (edited)

  THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO! I used to go to school in Annapolis and I&apos;ve been thinking this connection was being slept on for YEARS, from the former B&amp;A interurban line that&apos;s been largely forgotten somehow to the current bus services between Baltimore and Annapolis that CANNOT keep up with demand. More people should be talking about this!!!

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• SA

  @samuelseo1167 · 1 year ago

  As a St. John&apos;s student who doesn&apos;t drive, it always enraged me how hard it is to visit DC or Baltimore on a weekend. This is a fricking state capital we needed rail link yesterday!!

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• SY

  @Sylox95 · 1 year ago (edited)

  FWIW, residents in Anne Arundel County are the reason why the Baltimore Metro Subway exists in its current form. <br><br>Mind you this was in the &apos;70s so attitudes may have changed but I do believe there would be a lot of apprehension with extending Metro to Annapolis, be it from pearl clutchers and NIMBYS. <br><br>There is a lot of wealth and influence in that part of Anne Arundel County and they would definitely fight tooth and nail to not see it be built

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• EC

  @ECsponger2 · 1 year ago

  Ocean City Resident here: I wholly support an Amtrak to Salisbury. People would no doubt use it. I know I would. Currently the only public transportation that works is a BayRunner Shuttle. Actually semi-private. But it&apos;s overpriced AF.

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• ST

  @stalegum · 1 year ago

  BUILD THAT SHIT TO THE EASTERN SHORE!

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• JO

  @josephmassaua5486 · 1 year ago

  Awesome! I hope you win. As someone who needs to go from DC to Annapolis frequently, I&apos;m a fan of your plan.

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• BU

  @Buttersthatsme01 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Totally should ask LucidStew to do a video on option #3, unless you want to see how much this will cost.

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• RO

  @robertnichols4833 · 1 year ago (edited)

  The old Baltimore &amp; Annapolis corridor is still intact from where it used to cross below Rt. 50 to the location of the old Severn River trestle swing bridge, then all the way to College Creek along the north side of Rowe Blvd. That&apos;s far and away the best route by a huge margin into Annapolis from the north. Replacing the old trestle with another bridge (exactly the same way that the old Rt. 450 low level drawbridge was replaced by a new high level roadway bridge) is the only way into town that makes any sense. With the insanely ruinous cost for tunneling, and the also insane cost for right of way acquisition via eminent domain and condemnation in the extremely expensive Annapolis real estate environment, using as much as possible of the splendid former B&amp;A right of way that the state of Maryland so carefully preserved for exactly this reason is probably the only way that passenger rail service has any chance of ever reaching Annapolis again from the north. Speaking of historic rights of way, the original alignment of the old Annapolis and Elk Ridge Railroad (later part of the Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis interurban line) is also intact from Rt. 50 via Defense Street and the north side of West Street, until it diverges into what&apos;s now a utility corridor carrying power lines, which then becomes Poplar Avenue and finally Loew&apos;s Access Road, until it runs right into the back of the old Annapolis train station location now occupied by the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services. That old train station was also used by the old Baltimore and Annapolis line, which leads to this final and highly fortunate aspect of using intact former rail corridors. The alignments I&apos;ve mentioned above could be used again with a combination of efficient surface running and reasonably affordable elevated structures. The only thing be needed to link the old route into Annapolis from the west with the old route into Annapolis from the north is less than a half mile of new alignment. In the context of lovely and historic downtown Annapolis blocks west of Church Circle, where the new station would replace the Social Services Dept. building, it would be cheaper but also quite ugly and obtrusive to build an elevated link, while vastly more expensive yet far less obtrusive to build a tunnel link. Either the elevated structure or the tunnel would leave the old WB&amp;A surface alignment where necessary along the Loew&apos;s Access Road, then return to the old B&amp;A surface alignment where necessary west of College Creek. What I&apos;ve laid out here is a perfect fit in detail for the local Annapolis layout that would perfectly fit with the author&apos;s extremely sensible &quot;Proposal 3&quot; which seems to be the nest or his ideas. &nbsp;Looking closely at Google Maps while reading my details will show how sensible this arrangement would be within Annapolis, which I&apos;ve in mind since first becoming interested in railroad history while also enjoying many happy times time at a college friend&apos;s family home on the Severn in the Wardour neighborhood during the 1980&apos;s.

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