The Baltimore County Council will vote this month on whether to approve a contract with an outside firm to plan and study the proposed Towson Circulator, a free bus that would provide travel in and out of downtown Towson.
The proposed contract is with Sabra & Associates Inc., a Columbia-based engineering firm, to compile and analyze data, establish a final route plan and determine the feasibility of the bus. The contract is not to exceed $50,900, according to County Council documents.
A circulator in and around downtown Towson has been an idea floated for years, but did not gain a lot of political traction until earlier this year, when $100,000 of planning money was included in the county budget.
The money for the contract with Sabra & Associates comes from the $100,000 already allocated, according to County Councilman David Marks, who has long been a backer of the circulator project. It is distinct from a $1.6 million grant the county was just awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation to help pay for the purchase of buses and other costs related to the circulator.
Sabra & Associates was selected through a noncompetitive process because it has “previous experiencing conducting a similar study in 2015 for the MTA,” according to County Council documents.
Marks said in an email he was happy to see the circulator concept moving forward.
The council is scheduled to vote on the contract at its Dec. 16 meeting, according to council documents.