Breakfast links II: Get whisked away

Richmond to Raleigh in 2 hours

A NC/VA planing group has released a DEIS to speed passenger rail travel between Richmond and Raleigh from 4 hours to 2 and hopes to run four daily trains from DC to Raleigh. (The Transport Politic, Joey)  (Tip: Joey)

DC2beach

DC2NY has started weekend service from DC to Rehoboth and Dewey beaches in Delaware. Previously, In recent years, there has been no public transportation there whatsoever

from the DC region, whether planes, trains or buses. (Post, Cavan)  (Tip: Cavan)

Another person pooh-poohs Purple

Commentator Blair Lee makes praises Bob Ehrlich for criticizing the Purple Line and Baltimore Red Line, making some of the usual arguments that transit is expensive without examining the expenses of road expansion and maintenance. (Gazette, engrish_major)  (Tip: engrish_major)

Coming to Baltimore

Zipcar is expanding to downtown Baltimore. (Baltimore Sun) … There are hearings June 22nd on some MTA bus changes including 4 new bus routes (Andre) … The second Charm City Circulator route starts today. (Baltimore Sun)  (Tip: Andre)

$2 million for tax breaks?

Montgomery County is in the midst of a historic budget crisis and dipping dangerously into their reserve fund, but they still want to take another $2 million from the reserves for tax incentives for biotech firms. (Examiner)

Comment on transit formula

The FTA would like to hear your comments on how to improve the cost-effectiveness formula used to rate transit projects, factoring in benefits to communities as well as raw people-moving capacity. (Baltimore Sun)

APTA stance hurting transit?

APTA opposes the Senate energy bill even though it will reallocate most federal spending to TIGER and CLEAN-TEA (competitive clean transport and land use grants), which give transit an edge. They say there’s not enough money for transportation and all gas taxes should go to transportation. Mobilizing the Region says this stance is shortsighted.

And…

Enrollment in DC Public Schools is expected to rise next year, after declining for over 35 years (Examiner) … There’s a tricky bottleneck in the Fairfax County Parkway (Examiner) … Is scooter-mounted advertising the next big thing? (DCist)