I have never been a big fan of the way that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's (COG) Transportation Planning Board (TPB) operates. Unlike most big cities' Metropolitan Planning Organizations our local group does not initiate anything. It sits and waits for the local jurisdictions to bring it ideas that it then debates and debates and debates. Occasionally the TPB will ask the presenting jurisdiction to make modifications to its proposal and, while it can't demand that those changes be made, it has the de facto power of the threat of veto.
The TPB is made up of a number of local jurisdictions from the miniscule like Fairfax City and Takoma Park, Maryland which represent a few thousand people to the large like Fairfax County and Montgomery County which each represent about a million people. That means that on a rotating basis the mayor of Takoma Park or Fairfax City assume the chairman seat and have control over the transportation agenda for the entire Washington region. It's far too easy for these leaders to let very parochial interests and their desire for re-election dictate what they do and what they allow on the monthly agenda.
What brought this up was the breathless media reports on Tuesday and Wednesday that literally shouted that the TPB had approved the Purple Line which is a transit connection between Bethesda and New Carrolton in Maryland. The thing is that it has yet to be determined whether the Purple Line will be a light rail or bus rapid transit route. It does not address the continued threats of lawsuits from the country club that is in the path of the route.
The Purple Line is a good thing in that it will provide a reliable east/west link that doesn't currently exist inside the beltway. The problem is that it is still a long way away from being built. All that happened the other day was that the regional Transportation Planning Board got itself out of the way so that the planning can move forward.
Map: Coalition for Smarter Growth
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While we are on the subject of WiFi (wireless internet) in moving vehicles (OK, we discussed it a couple days ago) there are some groups that are pushing Amtrak pretty hard to add the service. According to a blog within reasononline that quotes a column from the Washington Post (the ever-shrinking, once-great newspaper of the nation's capitol) the rail system's spokesperson says, "Presently Amtrak is testing a system on the Acela express train, and we hope to have some results on that front soon.Our goal is to provide WiFi service." The Reason piece notes that Canada's Via Rail provides WiFi and so do most national rail services in Europe.
As I argued in favor of adding WiFi to local commuter trains, it seems to me that adding WiFi to Amtrak would be a wonderful sales tool. But notice that the Amtrak spokesman said that they are looking to add WiFi only to their very expensive Acela Express service. While I understand this from a marketing standpoint I think it's very shortsighted on the part of Amtrak not to make WiFi available in all of their trains. I can tell you that one of the reasons my daughter and I use a particular brand of bus from here to New York is because they offer WiFi. Somehow or another a $20 bus service has figured out how to provide WiFi but the local commuter trains and Amtrak can not. If the issue for Amtrak is security then it would be nice if they would just come out and say so. Otherwise, it's time to wake up and smell the next millennium and add WiFi for your paying customers.
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Many of you may have already seen this but for those that haven't I think this is one of the funniest videos dealing with local issues that I have seen in some time. It's called "Arlington: The Rap" and it's a very tongue in cheek look at our fair city. It would help if you didn't take it too seriously.
Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.
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