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Let’s pick up the pace on Baltimore transit | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
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Shown is a southbound Baltimore subway train from the elevated platform at the Reisterstown station. Baltimore area leaders are calling on Gov. Wes Moore to move forward with a re-imagining" of the region's stalled multimodal transportation systems. File. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun).

Shown is a southbound Baltimore subway train from the elevated platform at the Reisterstown station. Baltimore area leaders are calling on Gov. Wes Moore to move forward with a re-imagining" of the region's stalled multimodal transportation systems. File. (Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun). (Gene Sweeney Jr. / Baltimore Sun)

Thanks to Howard, Baltimore and Anne Arundel county executives Calvin Ball, John Olszewski Jr. and Steuart Pittman and Mayor Brandon Scott for their recent commentary calling for re-imagining public transportation (”It’s time to re-imagine public transportation for city, counties, Baltimore area leaders say,” Feb. 10).

It’s high time.

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And, in fact, we need to speed the process. Let’s skip the middle step of first setting up a (study) commission and go directly to the establishment of an authority that can get to work. Those of us who have spent our lives trying to influence government know that “study” is usually a euphemism for kicking the can down the road.

The fall of 2024 (when the commission is required to report to the General Assembly) is almost two years away. Major legislation rarely passes in year one. So the earliest an authority is likely to get approved is 2026. How long after that before an authority is in place is anyone’s guess.

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We should not wait that long.

— Will Baker, Towson

The writer is the former president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

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