Maryland’s New Governor on Baltimore’s Red Line: ‘We’re Going to Get It Done’
Democrat Wes Moore pledges to revive the $2.9 billion light rail project that his GOP predecessor, Larry Hogan, canceled in 2015.
Governor-elect Wes Moore with Governor Larry Hogan during a press conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.
Photograph: Graeme Sloan/Washington Post/Getty Images
One of the biggest calls by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan during his eight years in Annapolis was the decision to cancel the Red Line, a $2.9 billion transit expansion for Baltimore and the result of years of grueling compromise between local, state and federal authorities.
Just six months after taking office in 2015, the Republican governor hit the brakes on the 14-mile-long east-west light-rail line, declaring it a boondoggle and returning $900 million in guaranteed funding to the federal government. State funds earmarked for the project were spent on roads instead, mostly in rural and suburban areas, as well as on the Purple Line in the suburbs of Washington, DC.