By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEXINGTON PARK — An online reader poll on Southern Maryland transportation solutions, which is still underway, reveals huge support for bringing Maryland MARC commuter trains into Southern Maryland over existing CSX tracks.

With gas prices now over $4 per gallon, consumers are looking at any way possible to save money on commuting and travel.

Eighty percent of those polled said that they favored the new way to connect to the DC and Baltimore areas by using the existing freight railroad line which snakes from Bowie down through southern Prince George’s County and into Charles County, branching off to two electric generating plants, one on the Patuxent River and the other on the Potomac River.

Such commuter service could allow for stations and parking at Morgantown, Newburg, Faulkner, White Plains, St. Charles, Pinefield, Brandywine, Croom, Upper Marlboro and connecting to Amtrak and MARC main lines which go north and south at Bowie. Riders could easily connect to Metro via shuttle buses from Bowie or by taking a MARC train south to New Carrolton. Riders going north could get off at BWI airport and make air connections anywhere in the world. Many of Amtrak’s regional trains stop at Bowie and travelers could connect anywhere on Amtrak’s national system.

St. Mary’s County owns the old U.S. Navy railroad right of way which leads from Hughesville to Pax River NAS and the State of Maryland Transportation Department conducted a feasibility study which recommended that the State and St. Mary’s County act to preserve this right of way for future commuter use.

Seventy Eight percent of those answering the poll said that they favored extending commuter rail to Lexington Park over the railroad right of way, which could take significant traffic off of Rt. 5, Rt. 235 and even Rt. 4 in Calvert County if commuters could take a train instead of drive.

Commuter trains can operate with Wifi and electric outlets for lap top computers offering an easy way to get to the metro area and make the time spent traveling productive. Reading and napping can also be accomplished on a commuter train which glides past traffic tie-ups.

The CSX rail line which serves Southern Maryland parallels Rt. 301 from the Potomac River Bridge to Bowie and commuter rail service could significantly extend the useful life of this existing highway at a time when state officials continue to wrestle with ways to build a bypass around Waldorf for Rt. 301.

More than a hundred years ago a rail line was built to Chesapeake Beach and after operating for nearly 50 years the 9 trains a day stopped running after the double blow of devastating hurricanes raking the resort and the opening of new highways which encouraged travel by car.

Since the closing of the Chesapeake Beach railway, much of the right of way was used to build Rt. 260 into town and the state highway right of way could easily be expanded to restore rail service.

Asked if they favored restoration of rail service to Chesapeake Beach, eighty percent (215) of those responding said yes while only 20 percent (54) were opposed.

Southern Maryland is the only area surrounding the Washington, D.C. area which does not have commuter rail yet it is represented in Congress by the second most powerful member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Steny Hoyer (D. Md. 5th).

Rep. Hoyer obtained federal funds for a mass transit study for the region in 1994 and Maryland finally used the money to conduct a study of the Rt. 210 corridor but never took steps to begin any type of commuter transportation.

The O’Malley Administration recently announced the addition of six more daily commuter buses into Southern Maryland, adding to the dozens which currently serve the area.

Sen. Roy Dyson (D. St. Mary’s, Charles, Calvert) passed the feasibility study for preserving the St. Mary’s rail right of way and also successfully passed a Southern Maryland Transportation Study, which finally filed a pie-in-the-sky report last month which stubbornly sticks to the Maryland Dept. of Transportation plan to build rapid transit directly up the Rt. 301 / Rt. 5 corridor but fails to mention that such a plan would involve finding more than $3 billion to build it, meaning that nothing would be done.

The Tri-County Council of Southern Maryland has been a spectacular waste of money for the past twenty years and a parking place for lame bureaucrats. Instead of taking the lead on coordinating transportation initiatives, such dunderheads as the former longtime TCC Executive Director Gary Hodge, who is now a Charles County Commissioner, spent their time as tobacco lobbyists, a part-time endeavor that caused Hodge to get the boot from that post.

Dyson’s support of commuter rail for the region along with insisting on a new second span of the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge over the Patuxent River has earned him the support of the voters and the anger of the Secretary of Transportation, John Porcari, who insists that the Solomon’s bridge is safe. Dyson says it is likely to fall into the river. Indeed, in 1988, the State shut the bridge down while major structural repairs were performed when huge cracks developed in all of the support piers for the bridge.

An overwhelming Eighty Four percent of those responding supported Dyson’s proposal to build a second span over the Patuxent at Solomon’s. Dyson was successful in gaining the support of the O’Malley Administration in jump-starting a new bridge and allocating $5 million in planning funds. Public hearings on various alternatives to accomplishing a new span have been the subject of public hearings in Calvert and St. Mary’s.

Building a second span over the Potomac River to replace or supplement the 75-year-old Gov. Harry Nice Bridge is supported by Eighty Six percent of those answering. That bridge is the only southern evacuation point for the region and is tied up in traffic back-ups each day without any type of emergency.

A new cross-Bay ferry service from either Calvert or St. Mary’s to the Eastern Shore is favored by Eighty-One percent of those who took the online poll. Various proposals for a new way to cross the Bay in recent years but the cost of a bridge is prohibitive. Other states with large bodies of water such as Oregon and Washington State have successful car ferry operations as part of their transportation systems. Maryland had such a cross Bay ferry system but closed it down after opening the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1954.

A proposal by a private operator for a Southern Maryland to Virginia car ferry ended with no established service in 2005.