Plans to develop a 33-mile, $20 billion high-speed train line connecting Baltimore to Washington, D.C., remain active as key environmental and engineering studies continue, the developer of the massive project said on Thursday.
Bill Scott, president of Northeast Maglev LLC, told a group of Baltimore business leaders that plans for the magnetic levitating trains, or maglev, have been progressing for the past year even though public debate and discussion over building the system seems to have cooled following the settlement of a lawsuit over land rights in Westport, where the train line would traverse.
The maglev rail system would be developed by Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail, or BWRR, a firm registered as a franchised railroad in the state. Northeast Maglev is a companion entity of BWRR that promotes technology and markets the high-speed train concept.
Scott’s updates, before a meeting of the Chief Executive Officers’ Club at Hayfields Country Club, provided a glimpse inside the “nightmare” of regulatory reviews and an ongoing permitting quest that has spanned seven years so far. All involve working with officials and community groups in three Maryland counties and two cities, Baltimore and D.C., to plan the high-tech transportation system.
