Around 70 Greenbelters gathered in Roosevelt Center Saturday afternoon to rally against the proposed maglev train and march across the threatened Spellman Overpass. Protesters held up anti-maglev signs and slowed traffic on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
Led by Kristi Fletcher, the rally included a number of elected officials, including State Senator Paul Pinsky, State Delegates Nicole Williams and Anne Healey, Mayor Colin Byrd and city Councilmembers Emmett Jordan, Judith Davis, Silke Pope, Leta Mach and former councilmember Konrad Herling.
Pinsky and Williams have proposed anti-maglev legislation in both Maryland houses. In the State Senate, Pinsky proposed SB188, “prohibiting the State …from using any appropriation for a magnetic levitation transportation system.” The corresponding bill in the House of Delegates, HB63, was proposed by Williams.
Pinsky spoke against the maglev project, stating, “It’s not for regular people: it’ll make life easier for the one percent. How does it make life easier in Prince George’s County? Not at all.” Pinsky denied that the project would create jobs. Wayne Rogers, one of the leaders of Northeast Maglev, has claimed that the project would not require any state funding, so Pinsky’s proposed legislation would deny any state money from flowing toward the project. Although the legislation did not pass, Pinsky continued to urge the public to “keep the pressure on. It’s simply wrong. It does not serve the public.”
Williams urged the crowd to reach out to U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer, Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, as well as U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, to support the no-build option. Williams stated, “We know that mass transit helps, but this project is not mass transit.” Compared to an $8 MARC ticket or a $32 Amtrak ticket, “the $80 maglev ticket caters to the rich.” Whereas mass transit protects the environment, Williams asserted, the maglev project would harm the Patuxent Research Refuge, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) and Greenbelt Forest Preserve, natural areas traversed by the planned route.
Delegate Healey said, “We are up against powerful interests; we need to make sure that the people who are accountable to us remain accountable in regards to this train. It’s a boondoggle.”
“The Draft Environmental Impact Statement [DEIS] is full of very serious mistakes,” Byrd argued. Byrd noted that the DEIS was released on January 15, and that Northeast Maglev only called the threat to the Spellman Overpass a “mistake” on April 30, after 105 days had passed. “One day later we hold this rally,” Byrd said. “What is the credibility of individuals who would sit on information like that, not saying anything” until the rally was announced on social media. Byrd argued, “If you care about the Patuxent refuge, this project is bad news. If you care about space this project is bad news” (because it threatens the local observatory in Northway Field). He went on to list impacts to BARC, the Forest Preserve, ballfields and recreation and Greenbelt as a historic location. “This project will be an eyesore,” Byrd argued. “Loud, and its vibrations would impact frame structures like the ones in Old Greenbelt and throughout the city, including Greenbriar and other neighborhoods. Eleanor Roosevelt High School, the crown jewel of public education in the county, would be impacted.”
Pope noted that “our voices are heard by someone that’s paying attention, so we need to continue this momentum. We need to push and make sure we stop this project. Together we are strong, we can make noise. We have the support of so many delegates and state officials. The no-build option is our best option.”
The Spellman Overpass is a vital connection between the east and west parts of the city. The overpass allows Eleanor Roosevelt High School students to walk safely to their destination. Jordan, Davis and Williams all reside in the Greenbriar community in Greenbelt East, relying on the Spellman Overpass to travel to Old Greenbelt. Both Jordan and Davis spoke passionately against the proposed maglev train. Davis in particular argued that it would be barely 14 feet underground as it passed under her building. Noise and vibrations from the train would undermine buildings and lower property values, she argued.
The overpass is named for Gladys Noon Spellman, who attended high school and college in Washington, D.C., and became a Prince George’s County school teacher. She became active in county politics and was elected to the U.S. Congress representing Maryland’s 5th District.
Rally organizer Fletcher called the maglev a “billion-dollar boondoggle” which “will cost a billion dollars a minute for that 15 minutes from Washington to BWI.” Fletcher led the crowd in multisyllabic chants such as “cutting greenhouse gas emissions with maglev is science fiction.”
Environmental activists including Paul Downs and Susan Barnett attended the rally, because the proposed path of the maglev would destroy at least a quarter of the Forest Preserve, an important tract of land protected by Greenbelt and vital to the city’s identity. Activists have fought for the Forest Preserve for decades. If maglev goes through, Davis argued, “there won’t be the Greenbelt that we know.” Barnett stated, “They said they can’t afford this project if they can’t go through Patuxent, BARC and the wetlands; the cost savings for this project is going to be on the back of our environmental treasures.”
Citizen comments on the DEIS are open until Monday, May 24 at bwmaglev.info/index.php/project-documents/deis.