Major Questions Remain

on Key AMTRAK and the MDOT Projects

W BALT MARC STATION - DESPERATELY NEEDING BETTER DESIGN

Design Is Deficient, But Amtrak and MDOT Won’t Change a Thing

MDOT and Amtrak are nearing - if not at - completion of the design for a new federally-funded MARC Station in Midtown-Edmondson. Yet, the community has, for years now, been telling Amtrak and MDOT leaders that their design is deficient in multiple ways. Nothing has changed though - except one thing… they’ve now added outhouses to the design. In truth it’s the Maryland Department of Transportation that’s dropped the ball here. Even though Amtrak is paying for the station, MDOT has the right of sign-off on the design, so they’re in charge. And they’ve said nothing about any of the community concerns. Midtown-Edmondson is a poor, disinvested, African-American community, and has been for a very long time. Why should this community get the same considerations for their station as the one at Camden Yards downtown (a station with a third of the ridership of West Baltimore)? Why does the West Baltimore MARC Station remain the only station on the Penn Line between Baltimore and Washington that’s not ADA accessible? Take a guess.

COMMUNITY BRIDGE REBUILDS WITH ZERO HISTORIC SENSITIVITY

Environmental Justice? Hah! Let Them Eat Plain Concrete!

As part of the Douglass Tunnel rebuild project, Amtrak is tearing down and rebuilding two key bridges in the community - the entrances to Midtown-Edmondson from the west. And instead of using those federal dollars to leave this highly-disinvested, formerly-redlined supermajority African-American community with a shiningly new, thoughtfully-designed infrastructure showpiece, they’re instead doing the bare minimum they can get away with, and building what looks like a highway onramp - here, in an historic, African-American community. Despite all the talk about Environmental Justice and Justice 40, some things never change. The ECO has a signed contract with Amtrak saying the community is entitled to review and comment on the design at both 60% and 90% completion. Amtrak has honored neither of those requirements.

A PLAYGROUND CAPTURED AND MOVED WITHOUT COMMUNITY INPUT

Playground Relocation and Possible Augmentation

The little green rectangle on the map is Midtown-Edmondson’s only facility of any kind for kids. Amtrak was locating their “muck bin” directly across the street, their truck routes all around it, and their construction staging area just next door. The ECO pressured them about moving the playground, so they’re planning to do so now - without consulting the community or the ECO about where. They’re just doing it. And they’re locating the playground not where the community wants it - at a new pre-K facility, but instead on another spot adjacent to the construction staging area. That’s Justice 40, Environmental Justice. Not.

A NEIGHBORHOOD HEAVILY IMPACTED

Talk of Community Partnerships Await Fulfillment

From the beginning of Amtrak’s presence in West Baltimore, the ECO has sought to reach out to the federal entity and its contracted community consultants, to attempt to forge agreements, understanding, any sort of partnership with the federal entity. But at each turn Amtrak has listened politely, and then promptly ghosted us. Midtown-Edmondson is, and will be, experiencing the vast majority of all disruption from this decade-long project, yet Amtrak has sought no partnership at all with the community. One of our board members even signed a memorandum of understanding requiring Amtrak to seek consultation and input at certain benchmarks in the design process. None of that has happened though.

More Info on the Amtrak News Page