By Alex Holt (Maryland Correspondent) • May 12, 2020
On May 7, Hogan vetoed 37 bills, including HB (House Bill) 1236, or the MARC Train Expansion of Service Act, an ambitious proposal to expand the scope of Maryland’s MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) commuter rail system.
By Nick Sementelli (Advocacy Committee) • May 12, 2020
Historic designation can be complicated, but since DC has more than 50 historic districts, it’s important to understand. Here’s a breakdown of what it actually does.
By Stephen Repetski (Editorial Board Alum) • May 12, 2020
Newly-published Metro safety investigation reports name human error and failures to follow protocol as common threads leading to close calls, injuries, and trains being sent down the wrong tracks.
House Democrats released a new funding plan for coronavirus relief, which would give an extra $755 million to DC to make up for a shortfall between what all other states got and what DC got in previous relief packages. (Jenna Portnoy / Post)
Maryland Governor Lawrence Hogan will allow individual counties, like Montgomery and Prince George’s, to remain shut down as the rest of the state moves to reopen. He joined Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who extended shutdown measures in Northern Virginia until May 28th. (Post)
The number of homes sold in the Washington region this April fell by more than it had in ten years, but so did the number of houses coming on the market. As a result, the price of a home actually rose in Alexandria and Prince George’s County, and units sold out very quickly. (Urban Turf)
While traffic on is still only a fraction of what it was before the pandemic, the number of cars on local highways have been increasing since mid-April. Traffic volume increased 18% on the Beltway near Silver Spring and 16% on I-270 near Germantown in the past two weeks. (Dave Dildine / WTOP)
The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission found safety issues in the system’s Operations Control Center and charged Metro to add new precautions around third rail work, train operators on emergency fans, and stop remotely manipulating operator consoles without proper notice within the next 30 days. (Dick Uliano / WTOP)
Metro’s pandemic budget predicts a 60% drop in revenue, with ridership levels not returning to normal until summer 2021, and $19 million in extra costs for cleaning. Planned service hour extensions and a new fare increase are on hold until July as well. (Jordan Pascale / WAMU)
In response to a letter from Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the USPS confessed that the reason residents in several Ward 8 neighborhoods weren’t getting their mail on time is because the Congress Heights station doesn’t have enough personnel to handle the increase in deliveries. (Natalie Delgadillo / DCist)
Amazon reportedly wants to build a massive distribution center in Gaithersburg, but is facing delays getting the site approved by the City Council, who had accepted an earlier plan from the developer for a mix of retail and research labs on the project site. (Alex Koma / WBJ)
