Rapid Transit Bus for Southern Maryland

Posted by chris on February 15, 2009

Story submitted by Frank Allen

For several years there has been discussion about the possibility of establishing light rail or commuter rail service to St Mary’s County. Population and traffic growth here and the demonstrated growth in ridership on the Keller bus service do indicate need for improved public transit between here and Washington. However establishing either light rail or commuter rail service would be very expensive and could take a decade or more to develop. I am proposing a different transit option that can be established quickly and incrementally upgraded: a bus service running on a combination of public highways and dedicated busways. This type of transit is called Rapid Transit Bus (RTB).

I have seen a few examples of this type of service. The first is the Gray line on the Boston MBTA. I boarded an ordinary bus at Logan Airport which looped around the airport, entered the new Ted Williams Tunnel (Interstate 90 extension) under Boston Harbor, traveled a few blocks through South Boston, then entered a bus tunnel under the downtown area. I go off at the South Station stop. I took the bus back at the end of my meetings a few days later. Even though my rides were close to the peak of rush hour (trust me, Boston traffic moves at a crawl), the trips were pretty quick because the buses traveled along dedicated routes in the congested areas. The MBTA was able to establish this route at reduced costs because they decided to share the tunnel under the harbor rather than dig a separate and very expensive tunnel just for the line. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »