An wide coalition of Montgomery County civic groups ranging from the urban Action Committee for Transit to the rural Countryside Alliance is calling on the Maryland Department of Transportation to improve transit service and planning in that part of the region. Specifically, the coalition, which is beginning what they hope to be a blitz of press conferences and articles, copied the following two demands in an email to BeyondDC last week:

1. The “immediate placement of an order for additional trains for (the Brunswick line of) MARC commuter rail”, explaining that MARC’s “contract with the CSX railroad, which owns the tracks MARC trains run on, allows it to run three more trains per day” than currently operate.
2. The “construction of the Corridor Cities Transitway as a rail line”, rather than BRT, and with a route that connects walkable urban centers and shuttles commuters to Shady Grove, rather than limp through parking lot-surrounded office park after parking lot-surrounded office park. Says Clarksburg civic leader Greg Fioravanti, “We need accessible rapid rail, not a slow bus to nowhere.”