BALTIMORE – The Trump administration has dealt a staggering blow to a $13 billion proposal to string a high-speed, magnet-propelled train line between Baltimore and the District of Columbia.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has terminated its environmental review of the project, the federal agency said in a July 31 letter to the Maryland Department of Transportation, the effort’s state sponsor. The letter cites “significant, unresolvable impacts” to federal agencies and properties as well as ongoing delays and significant cost overruns.
“Our understanding is that MDOT agrees with these conclusions and supports the termination of the Agreement,” FRA Acting Administrator Drew Feeley wrote.
MDOT Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said in a written reply that the state would comply with the FRA’s request to close out the review process.
Northeast Maglev, the private company leading the project, didn’t respond to requests for comment. In an Aug. 4 social media post, though, the company pledged to continue moving forward.
“The FRA’s decision to suspend the [environmental review] is a setback, but it is not the end,” the post stated. “We remain committed to delivering high-speed rail to the Northeast Corridor and advancing a future that is faster, cleaner and more connected.”
Northeast Maglev also pointed out in its post that private investments in the project to date, totaling $158 million, represent $7 for each $1 spent by the federal government.
The company has marketed the magnetic-levitation train as a 300-mph alternative to slower rail options and air-polluting cars and buses. It would slash the travel time between the two major metropolitan areas to a mere 15 minutes, backers say.
Plans called for eventually extending the line to New York City, shuttling riders between there and the nation’s capital in roughly an hour’s time.
But the project had attracted significant pushback from neighborhood groups, who had raised environmental justice concerns about some of the route proposals. Members of minority groups represented nearly 70% of the residents living within the project’s “affected environment,” according to the organization Clean Water Action.
Critics argued that few of those communities would have directly benefited from the project because passenger access between the two cities would have been limited to a single stop at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
And while some environmental advocates embraced the project’s potential to reduce local air emissions, others worried about permanent disruption to sensitive lands. The line would travel both above and below ground, with both of the potential routes bisecting the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and one of them crossing the Patuxent Research Refuge.
The project had nonetheless acquired a degree of bipartisan support. Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, Larry Hogan, had each traveled to Japan for test rides on the technology and spoke glowingly afterward of its potential to boost the state’s economy.
The Maryland Coalition for Responsible Transit said in a statement that its members are “elated” by the FRA decision.
“Over the years, our numerous volunteer experts have provided abundant information showing that the project would have serious financial, environmental, safety and environmental justice impacts on the communities along the route, as well as reverberations throughout Maryland,” the group said, adding that it supports upgrades to Amtrak and the Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) systems to ease commutes.
In2021, the FRA halted the $28 million environmental review process, citing the need to gather additional engineering details and funding. That stoppage was still in effect when the cancellation was announced.
With so many federally owned buildings and properties in the route’s crosshairs, the FRA considered design alternatives, such as constructing the line entirely underground. But doing so still posed potential conflicts because of the location of the tunnel and its need for above-ground infrastructure, including ventilation systems and emergency exits, the agency said in its Federal Register notice.
Further, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of November 2021 has sunk billions of dollars in federal investments into improving the Northeast Corridor’s existing rail network. As a result, the arguments used to make the case for a high-speed rail option, as outlined in the project’s draft environmental impact statement released earlier that year, “may no longer be valid,” the agency wrote.
In his letter, Feeley left the door open to future maglev projects here or elsewhere.
“This will end FRA’s involvement in the environmental review process, but it does not preclude the future deployment of [maglev] technology in the United States,” he wrote.