Around 200 people attended an informational meeting on Monday, November 27, concerning the proposal to run an SCmaglev train between Baltimore and Washington, with two of the three routes under consideration tunneling under homes in Greenbelt East. Arranged by Delegate Alonzo Washington and held at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, the meeting provided more information on what those attending could do to stop the train from happening rather than the pros and cons of the SCmaglev proposal, as no proponents of the project made themselves known at the meeting.
Washington said that invitations had been extended to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who has expressed strong support for the railway; Maryland Secretary of Transportation Peter Rahn; representatives of the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), the agency currently undertaking an environmental impact study (EIS) for the proposed routes; and representatives of the Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail, LLC (BWRR), the private firm that is to build and operate the railway. All had declined the invitation. One person attending did maintain neutrality. He was Dr. Lei Zhang, a transportation engineer professor who is the director of the National Transportation Center in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. For more on this story, click here.