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Status | Proposed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Baltimore, Maryland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Type | Streetcar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Charles Street Trolley is a proposed streetcar line running through northern portions of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Kittelson & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm hired by trolley advocates, estimates that the line would be likely to carry 2.5 million riders per year. [1]
The proposal is backed by a public-private group known as the Charles Street Development Corporation. [2] A second group, known as Friends of the Trolley is also backing the project; it was reported in November 2011 that FotT had hired a community organizer. [3] As envisioned, the line would probably use modern, low-floor light rail cars, but the use of newly-built replica-vintage rail cars is an alternative also being considered. [4]
A website for what appears to be a third group—the Baltimore Streetcar Campaign—is also active in advocating for a Charles Street trolley plan.
Certain portions of the proposed routing would be similar to that covered by the Maryland Transit Administration's proposed Yellow Line. As of 2012 [update] , the proposed alignment also overlaps significantly with a proposed extension of the Charm City Circulator. [5]
While the proposed trolley is not a project of the MTA, the two groups have expressed a willingness to work together on certain elements of a transit plan for the area involved.
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is a state-operated mass transit administration in Maryland, and is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation. The MTA operates a comprehensive transit system throughout the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area. There are 80 bus lines serving the Baltimore Metropolitan Area, along with rail services that include the Light Rail, Metro Subway, and MARC Train. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 52,922,000, or about per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
The SEPTA subway–surface trolley lines are a collection of five SEPTA trolley lines that operate on street-level tracks in West Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and also underneath Market Street in Philadelphia's Center City. The lines, Routes 10, 11, 13, 34, and 36, collectively operate on about 39.6 miles (63.7 km) of route.
The Baltimore Metro SubwayLink is a rapid transit line serving Baltimore, Maryland, and its northwestern suburbs, operated by the Maryland Transit Administration. The segment in Downtown Baltimore is underground, while most of the line outside the central city is elevated or at surface grade. In 2023, the line had a ridership of 1,988,300, or about 7,953 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Baltimore Light RailLink is a light rail system serving Baltimore, Maryland, United States, and its northern and southern suburbs. It is operated by the Maryland Transit Administration. In downtown Baltimore, it uses city streets. Outside the central portions of the city, the line is built on private rights-of-way, mostly from the defunct Northern Central Railway, Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad and Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway. The system had a ridership of 3,546,300, or about 12,500 per weekday, as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Red Line is a proposed east–west transit line for Baltimore, Maryland. The original project was granted federal approval to enter the preliminary engineering phase and the Maryland Transit Administration had spent roughly $300 million in planning, design and land acquisition, until Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared his intent to not provide state funds for the project and shift state funding to roads in suburban areas. The original Red Line had been projected to cost roughly $1.6 billion, $900 million of which would have been guaranteed federal funding. Its construction had been estimated to begin in late 2015–early 2016, subject to funding, with a completion date set for late 2021–early 2022.
The Green Line is a proposed mass transit line for the Baltimore, Maryland area in the United States. It is still in the planning stages and its construction is not guaranteed.
The National Capital Trolley Museum (NCTM) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates historic street cars, trolleys and trams for the public on a regular schedule. Located in Montgomery County, Maryland, the museum's primary mission is to preserve and interpret the history of the electric street and interurban railways of the National Capital region.
Streetcars and interurbans operated in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., between 1890 and 1962.
Streetcars or trolley(car)s were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in the mid-20th century or converted to other modes of operation, such as light rail. Today, only Toronto still operates a streetcar network essentially unchanged in layout and mode of operation.
CityLink Orange is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore and its suburbs. The line currently runs from the Wal-Mart parking lot in Catonsville, Maryland east through downtown Baltimore to the Fox Ridge community in Essex, serving the corridors of Edmondson Avenue on the west side and Eastern Avenue on the east, and the communities of Edmondson Village, Allendale, Rosemont, Patterson Park, and Eastpoint, and is one of the most heavily used bus routes operated by the MTA.
Route 51 is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore and its suburbs. The line currently runs from the center of Towson to the Inner Harbor in Downtown Baltimore, serving the Charles Street corridor. Route 51 replaced Route 11 on June 18, 2017 due to the BaltimoreLink bus system overhaul.
LocalLink 95 is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore. The line currently runs from the intersection of Roland Avenue and Lake Avenue in Roland Park south to the Inner Harbor via Roland Avenue, University Parkway, Charles Street and St. Paul Street.
CityLink Purple is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore and its suburbs. The line currently runs from the Wal-Mart parking lot in Catonsville to Bullneck Road/Turner's Station Dundalk mostly along the corridors of Frederick Road on the west side and Eastern Avenue on the east side, serving the communities of Yale Heights, Pigtown, downtown Baltimore, Fells Point, and Highlandtown.
CityLink Gold is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore. It replaced Route 13 in 2017. The line currently runs from Walbrook Junction in West Baltimore to Canton, mostly along North Avenue. The line has two main branches, both operating to Canton: one that operates via Fells Point and the other via Linwood and East Streets. Both these branches serve Johns Hopkins Hospital. Additionally, selected trips on weekdays and Saturdays operate to the block of Milton Avenue, Federal Street, and Patterson Park Avenue.
Route 27 is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore. The line currently runs from the Reisterstown Plaza Metro Subway Station in northwest Baltimore to Port Covington in South Baltimore through downtown. The line also serves the communities of Pimlico, Mt. Washington, Cross Keys, Hampden, and Cherry Hill, and the Greyhound bus terminal. The bus route is the successor to the 10 Roland Park, 12 Westport, and 25 Mount Washington streetcar lines.
CityLink Yellow is a bus route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore and its suburbs. The line currently runs from the intersection of York Road and Northern Parkway to the Riverview, with some trips making short turns at Washington Boulevard and Monroe Street. The line serves the corridors of The Alameda, Kirk Avenue, Guilford Avenue, and Washington Boulevard.
The Maryland Transit Administration was originally known as the Baltimore Metropolitan Transit Authority, then the Maryland Mass Transit Administration before it changed to its current name in October 2001. The MTA took over the operations of the old Baltimore Transit Company on April 30, 1970.
The Yellow Line is a mass transit line proposed by the Baltimore Regional Rail Plan in March 2002 for the Baltimore, Maryland area. It would begin at Columbia Town Center in Columbia, Maryland, and end in Hunt Valley, Maryland at Shawan Road.
Southern Maryland Rapid Transit, abbreviated as SMRT, is a proposed mass transit line along the Maryland Route 5 and U.S. Route 301 highway corridors in between Washington, D.C., and Waldorf, Maryland. The project would link the heavily populated suburbs of northwestern Southern Maryland with Washington via a direct transit connection to the Washington Metro at Branch Avenue station.