Maryland Governor Wes Moore’s administration unveiled the state’s six year consolidated transportation plan this week, and it includes significant cuts to statewide transportation services and highway construction projects. The state is grappling with a projected $3.3 billion transportation budget deficit over the next six years thanks to rising costs associated with inflation, the drop in projected revenues from the statewide fuel tax, and the loss of emergency federal funding that came during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proposed cuts will be across all of MDOT’s transit modes. They include a reduction in MARC train services from D.C. to Maryland and West Virginia, elimination of MTA Commuter Bus services with low ridership, and a 40 percent reduction in grants to locally operated transit systems across the state. The budget cuts will also put a pause on all new highway construction projects that weren’t advertised this year and will lead to a reduction in roadway sweeping, clean-up, and guard-rail maintenance.

The state’s proposed budget also included a potential hike to parking costs at BWI so it’s more in line with costs at Dulles and Reagan International Airports. (The daily parking garage price at BWI is $12/day, relative to Dulles $21/day and DCA $29/day.)

Maryland transportation secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld argues the impending financial woes have been looming for years. “In 2020, the Department of Legislative Services identified that Maryland’s transportation program had a structural issue with operating costs increasing faster than overall revenues,” Wiedefeld explained in a release this week announcing the cuts.

The $20 billion budget proposal does keep a number of major transit developments in place. Construction on the Purple Line, a long-awaited 16-mile light rail connecting New Carrollton to Bethesda, will continue as planned. The line is projected to open in the Spring of 2027. The plan also includes billions to improve the MARC Penn Line and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor connecting DC commuters to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. The Maryland Department of Transportation also has sought out matching federal funds for new transit projects, including $4.7 billion for the new Fredrick Douglas Tunnel Program.

WAMU’s Esther Ciammachilli spoke with Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld about the state’s proposed Consolidated Transportation Plan and when Washington-area commuters will start to see changes. The Maryland General Assembly will meet in January and vote on the proposed budget in the coming session.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

ESTHER CIAMACHILLI: Maryland’s Transportation Department is forecasting a $3.3 billion shortfall in its budget over the next six years. How will this budget shortfall impact public transit options in the state, needed highway construction and things like that?

WIEDEFELD: We still will deliver roughly $20 billion worth of work over that six year period. Obviously, the $3 billion hit does have an impact. But we will continue to do a number of things across the state. The impact entails a reduction to some of our operating budgets across the board, meaning all of our modes, whether they be the motor vehicle ministries and transit highway, port, and airport. And then we will be looking at basically any construction project that’s not advertised by the end of this this year, this calendar year. We will not fund those projects in the current program period.

And that gives us the ability to use some of the federal dollars for those larger projects and use our funds to continue smaller projects, particularly projects that are related to preservation of the system. We will also have to reduce some of the basic maintenance that we do at a lower level than we would prefer, but given the financial realities, we will have to do that as well.

Are you expecting any reduction in staffing?

WIEDEFELD: We’ll be doing hiring freezes at a number of the modes that we do have. We are going to try to maintain staffing at the transit agencies and the highway agencies. Remember, most of those people are the people that you see out in the system, either driving busses or cars or trains or the people that you see out on the roadway fixing things. 

Can you be a little more specific about the cuts to transit projects?

WIEDEFELD: So we provide some support for locally operated transit systems or smaller systems throughout the state. We’re proposing to reduce that by 40% of the match that we give to local governments or on the capital side when they go purchase buses and vehicles and things of that sort. So that obviously could impact those local services if they don’t come up with the additional dollars from the reductions that we’re providing. 

Many of our listeners, myself included, have been waiting years for the launch of the Purple Line. And I know it’s being constructed via a public-private partnership, but will this budget shortfall impact the Purple Line?

WIEDEFELD: No, it will not impact the Purple Line. Again, any project that is under construction, we will continue. As I mentioned, we still have $20 billion in our capital program to do projects that are under construction and other things that will be coming down the road. So we are continuing to do that. And the Purple Line is one that we will continue to do.

What are some of the reasons why MDOT is bringing in much less money than previously expected? 

WIEDEFELD: Businesses and households around the state and around the country are basically under record inflation rates. There’s also a reduced labor pool and issues with accessing materials. All that drives up cost. Whether it’s something that we’re building or a service that we’re asking for. So, for instance, we don’t run the MARC system. We don’t own the tracks and we don’t do the personnel, but we do that through contracts. So as they have cost increases, that then get pushed onto us. So that’s one of the major drivers of this.

The other is our revenues have not kept up with the growth of operating costs. One of our core revenue sources is through our fuel tax — it’s almost 25% of our funding. And with cars being much more efficient, which is fantastic for consumers, it basically dooms the financial model because we aren’t pulling in as many dollars as we historically would have from motor fuel. And the electrification of the fleet also has that same impact. If you have a pure electric vehicle, you’re not buying motor fuel and you’re also adding a vehicle to the roads driving up costs.

And the third large element of this is since COVID, the state had received between us and WMATA almost $3 billion worth of federal money that was used to support the operating budget that no longer is available. I’m sure you’ve done stories on the fiscal cliff in the Washington region. So that is the other major part.

When will Washington area commuters begin to see cuts to services? And can you speak to whether we’ll see a cost increase for parking at BWI? 

With the service reductions, there’s two issues here. One is we have been planning to add additional service on the MARC Brunswick line, which was reduced on the day services. So we’re not there today, but we will not be basically going forward with those. And then there are three MARC service trains that go into West Virginia today that will be reduced to one. And all these things that we’re discussing will kick in on July 1, which is the beginning of our fiscal year. In terms of parking at BWI, we are the lowest parking rates in the region. Reagan and Dulles are much higher as well as Philadelphia. So there are some opportunities to generate some of the dollars. And the other reason we are doing that, obviously, is to reduce some of the cuts we have to make in these other areas. Otherwise we have to cut deeper.