Here’s the deal, MTA: Give us these on the Purple and Red lines, we won’t raise a stink about Gaithersburg getting the shaft.

According to the Gazette, BRT is becoming the favored option over light rail for the Corridor Cities Transitway. Though the Gazette tries to paint the decision as one based on the merits of BRT over light rail, the real reason for the decision is that with massive amounts of Maryland transportation dollars sunk into the ICC, with Feds hostile to transit, and with the Purple line and Baltimore’s Red line competing for the measly transit money that does remain available, the Corridor Cities Transitway is most likely to be the odd one out.

Much as we hate to admit it, because BRT is *not* better than light rail, the decision to do BRT in Gaithersburg is probably a good one *if* it means we get light rail in Baltimore and Silver Spring. Even with the best possible alignment in place instead of the existing seriously flawed one, the CCT would still be clearly the least promising of the three competing transit corridors, given its location in relatively sparse, auto-oriented suburbia.

Given the constraints, we can live with BRT for the CCT (for now), but let’s not kid ourselves. It ain’t about providing the best service, it’s about providing what service we can for not very much money. We do wonder, though, what people will think of new highways and cheaply-produced transit when gas hits $10 / gallon.