Why is there no good Light Rail to Subway connection in BAL?

[Kevin L.]

Living outside of the suburban counties would be extremely difficult to do without a car.

Though as I recall, Anne Arundel County is considered a suburban county, especially the northern quarter. AA Co has its share of commuters, great is the number of AA co commuters going down Route 50 to New Carrollton every morning. A suburban commuter county, a county containing not only the State's capital, but also the Bay Bridge, gateway to the bedroom communities of the Eastern Shore. AA Co is a prime candidate for increased rail transit. Anything south of the Odenton MARC station (the vast majority of the county) has no rail transit save for the distant New Carrollton. Much of the county consists of peninsulas, and these are sufficiently east of any rail transit (especially for Balitmore) as so that it becomes unobtainable.

One thing I forgot about is that people in other counties have buses which have provisions for carrying a normal bicycle. AA County did not get such provisions until very recently, and not all buses have them. Several buses serving the "famed" B&A bike trail have lacked them until very recent history, which makes no sense.

I understand that at one time there existed a Baltimore-Annapolis train, and that it went out of business. Reopening one along the preserved former corridor would be folly, and was vetoed when the light rail was constructed all those years ago. (Which might have been a good thing, some rather momentous engineering would have been compensate for the massive height difference between the former corridor & the light rail's terminus @ Cromwell. Semi-convenient is the fact that the preserved corridor literally ends across the street from Cromwell.)

Instead of the ICC, which is a transit venture only half-complete without the addition of more capable north-south roads, I would prefer the proposed Greenbelt metro extension to B'more up the 295 corridor. Sure it would be ridiculously costly, but so is the ICC. I'd wager it could even be completed in less time than the still-incomplete ICC will be. Just decide on a place in B'more for the northern terminus, and have at it. Better a functional train than a greater boondoggle like the Ocean City wind farm.

I've used New Carrollton many a time, and while the track may be jostling and the going not the fastest in the world, it is still fun and infinitely (literally) better than what 2 counties neighboring PG get

 

[AlanB]

There is no fare enforcement of which to speak, so most who ride don't pay a red cent, and to make up the slack, the "honest citizen" has to pay more and more for his pass.

I'm sorry but the bold part of your statement simply isn't correct. I cannot speak to the enforcement side of things specifically, but it can't be all that bad based upon the numbers. The fare box recovery rate for light rail in 2009 was 21.46% only a bit off the national average at 28.17%. And ahead of LA at 20.71%, NJ at 17.97%, Charlotte at 18.96%, and way ahead of Dallas at 12.94% for example. And it’s not like the MTA is keeping its expenses super low, they’re actually a bit higher than comparable systems. So again, fare evasion rates cannot be all that bad.

And it's not pass riders making it up either as the Baltimore MTA monthly pass is $64, NY $104, Boston $59, Chicago $86, LA $75, Dallas $65.

Now on the other hand, fare box recovery rates for the subway and commuter rail are horrible as compared to the national averages. The subway only hits 21.26% and commuter 32.29%. The national averages are 60.23% and 47.96% respectively.

New York City, DC, & Boston clearly predate rail mass transit, yet both intra-city and inter-city mass transit have flocked to its doors. What's that old adage, "If you build it, they will come"?

While NYC officially pre-dates rail transit, it is not the NYC that we know today. NYC pre-rail consisted of the southern tip of what today we call Manhattan. Above 42nd Street it was pretty much all farm land, and even down to Houston Street there really wasn't much in the way of a "city". You had to get south of Canal Street to really be in the city. A bit of the Brooklyn waterfront also existed pre-rail.

Otherwise, NYC grew up around its subway system and the old El's, many of which are now gone. The LIRR and its predecessors also contributed to making NYC the city it is today and that predated the subway, although back then you needed a ferry to reach Manhattan as the tracks ended in Queens & Brooklyn.