Letter to Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley

The Honorable Martin O’Malley
State House
100 State Circle
Annapolis, MD 21401

Dear Governor O’Malley:

We are extremely concerned about the impact of possible cuts to Metro service and urge that you find the additional $30 million in the Transportation Trust Fund necessary to avert any service cuts. The letters to you from legislators serving Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, along with the Washington Post editorial, and the abundant e-mails from Marylanders, show the breadth of concern.

All other jurisdictions are moving toward providing their shares of the proposed, region-wide $74 million increase in Metro funding. Officials representing Arlington and Fairfax counties, the City of Alexandria and the District of Columbia have made public comments (noted following this letter) favorable toward this increase. As you know, no jurisdiction will commit to providing extra funds if another indicates it is rejecting the idea. This leaves it up to Maryland to assure that our transit system remains viable.

Failure to act would be disastrous. Metro is the economic engine for the entire DC region, and is crucial to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Hence, reducing Metro service threatens much of Maryland’s tax base. From day one, the proposed service cuts would anger Metro passengers. A reduction of eight car trains to six cars at peak hours would make it simply impossible to carry the number of commuters who currently take Metro. This would force more cars onto our already congested roads. Other cuts would hurt just as much, such as the half hour evening waits for trains, which is likely to drive away passengers in droves. As a whole, these cuts would send Metro into the “death spiral” of shrinking service and shrinking revenue that former Metro General Manager Richard White warned about in 2004.

Maryland environmentalists have been impressed with your record, particularly regarding the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act and the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change. Yet we are worried that a reduced Metro would undo much of the good you have done, leading to more cars, more congestion, more greenhouse gas emissions, and more local pollution. It would mean a shrinking of the entire system around which Smart Growth is based. In the long run, this new car dependence would encourage sprawl, as mixed use development around transit centers would no longer make sense. Because public transit moves people so much more efficiently than automobiles do, it is unlikely that any transportation strategy would keep the region moving other than one based upon a well-funded Metro.

Even in a time of severe budget constraint and extremely painful choices, it is critical to keep Metro running at today’s level of service. Metro customers, shouldering an $89 million rate increase, will be doing more than their fair share to keep Metro running. Representatives of one jurisdiction after another have signaled a strong willingness to do theirs. As this momentum continues, we, the below signatories urge you to make sure that the State of Maryland does its share in providing the last, crucial piece to ensure a fully functioning Metro.

Dave O’Leary

Vice Chair

Maryland Sierra Club

David Hauck

Chair, Executive Committee

Montgomery County Sierra Club

David Alpert

Founder and Editor

Greater Greater Washington

Ben Ross

President

Action Committee for Transit