More than 150 Bowie residents filled City Council chambers Monday night to hear the latest presentation about a proposed high-speed maglev train project that might run through the city.
David Henley, the project director for Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail (BWRR), did not comment on what mattered most to the crowd — whether a proposed route running through Bowie was currently the project sponsor's favored alignment.
When briefing Mayor G. Frederick Robinson and City Council, Henley said multiple times he was "cautioned" by the Maryland Transportation Authority not to comment on specific alignments. This was because the MTA's ongoing environmental impact study, being done in compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), is the driving factor for alignment choice, he said.
"I would love to talk about all aspects of the NEPA process, but I'm not in charge of that, and I was cautioned not to speak about that," Henley said, drawing angry responses from the crowd.
The MTA scoping report, published in May and available online, presented a handful of possible alignments. One runs along the WB&A Trail, crossing Bowie State University, the Two Rivers retirement community and some Bowie neighborhoods. Two of the routes cross Odenton, while another runs beside some of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
The MTA was not represented at the briefing.
Twenty-four citizens spoke at the meeting, 23 of whom opposed the project. Their complaints included the train's post-construction operating costs and limited benefit for local commuters, the unknown long-term effects of the train's magnetic field, the perceived lack of transparency during the project's initial phases and the impact on Bowie neighborhoods, farms and green spaces.
After the citizen comments portion ended, all seven city councilmembers also expressed to Henley their skepticism or outright opposition of the project.
"We are going to work together as a community to prevent this," Mayor Pro Tem Henri Gardner said.
The briefing was the latest meeting in an ongoing process that reaches far beyond city limits. Robinson said he met with U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen to discuss the issue last weekend. City Councilmember Michael Esteve said an official in the governor's office told him the chance of the maglev coming to fruition was "50-50," even though no funding has been committed.
Monday's meeting was also attended by State Del. Geraldine Valentino-Smith, State Sen. Douglas Peters and County Councilman Todd Turner.
"I will commit as a state delegate to have strong communication channels with MTA as to why they're not here tonight," Valentino-Smith said.
City Councilmember Isaac Trouth called on citizens to lobby state and federal officials who are closer to the decision-making process.
The Washington-to-Baltimore leg is "phase one" of a larger public-private partnership aiming to connect Washington with New York City by a magnetic levitation train line. BWRR is partnering with an American company called The Northeast Maglev and Central Japan Railway Company, the Japanese firm that owns the train technology used in Asia. Their train in Japan holds the record for fastest train in the world.
In his briefing, Henley described the maglev as a solution to the Northeast Corridor's congested infrastructure, and said the most generous timeline would see construction begin at the end of 2019 and last five to seven years.
Henley clarified the point that an "express" line would travel from Washington to New York in under an hour, with only one stop in Philadelphia, while a parallel "local" line also would make stops at BWI Airport; Baltimore; Wilmington, Delaware; and Newark, New Jersey.
He also said his group's financial feasibility study concluded the project would create 74,000 new jobs in Maryland and a $6.5 billion increase in the state's GDP.
The residents who signed up to speak, such as Fiona Moodie, weren't buying it.
"Bowie citizens are sick and tired of being told what we want and why we want it," Moodie said.
Former city councilmember Dennis Brady also addressed the council as a private citizen. He estimated the proposed route that runs through Bowie would cause the loss of 263 houses to eminent domain, which represented $358,915 in tax revenue. He based this on a 1,000-foot-wide zone of construction that officials put out as an estimate at an "open house" meeting last April.
Three citizens said they believed the train would only benefit "elite" passengers who would be able to travel between cities marginally faster, a comment that drew particular applause each time.
While most speakers stood facing the council, Linda Tucker addressed Henley head on. One of the leaders of the "Maglev Coalition," a group of citizens opposing the maglev, Tucker noted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wrote in the MTA scoping report that the project "will likely result in discharges of dredged or fill material into waters."
After reiterating her neighbors' concerns, Tucker compared the proposed maglev to the Titanic and the Hindenburg, though only one fatal maglev accident has ever occurred, in Germany in 2006.
At the meeting's end, however, the mayor gave Henley a chance for closing remarks, and Henley said he was "extremely impressed" with the people he'd heard.
"All I can promise is that this process will be more fair," Henley said. "I've heard your comments, I've heard your emotions, I've heard your good ideas. Well-delivered, sometimes tough to hear. But I take it very respectfully. I have a lot of respect for Bowie, more so tonight than ever."