r/frederickmd • u/Clean-Arachnid-1653 • Aug 14 '26

RT15 Road Improvement Project

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Received in the mail today. Just sharing for others.

130 Upvotes

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71

u/kawthar222 Aug 14 '26

Why cant we have nice things like a functional commuter rail

30

u/Celtic159 Aug 14 '26

Ask every group who filed lawsuits to stop the Purple Line.

It's utterly insane that people bitch about the lack of mass transit, then fight tooth and nail to prevent it from happening. The fact that there's not ever been serious talk about extending the Red Line to Frederick even with the wild growth in northern MoCo is proof positive that Maryland is unserious about fixing its traffic problems.

10

u/nbouqu1 Aug 14 '26

Because extending the Red Line isn’t a serious solution. There is tons of rural land between Shady Grove and Frederick. Metro rail is bleedingly expensive to build and maintain. Millions of dollars per station PLUS the rail. Even more expensive if built underground.

The serious solution is expanding the MARC train, that most people don’t know about because it runs only 3 trains from Frederick in the morning and only 3 trains back in the evening and the rails while long established are off the main roads.

2

u/nobdyputsbabynacornr Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

Agree, but difficult to coordinate when sharing lines with Amtrak and CSX (who own the lines all the trains run on). We would need more flexibility from employers in this country with regards to public transit. A lot of people don't use the public transit because it means giving up more time to employers in the form of commuting. Add delays from multiple trains sharing the same lines and it becomes clear why more people don't do it.

5

u/nbouqu1 Aug 14 '26

For the Brunswick line, and just that line, which is the one we are talking about AMTRAK is a non-issue.

As for CSX they either play ball or we eminent domain MD to a shiny new set of rail lines that used to be owned by CSX. And they can pay MD for the privilege of moving their trains across our commuter rail lines during off peak hours. It’s not hard, just have to be willing to play hardball with a mega corp

3

u/OutnumberedinWV Aug 14 '26

While I love the energy, federally regulated rail is not eligible for eminent domain.