Well, I remember when the Metro was planned in the mid-70s. It was supposed to take several years, be finished in the early 80s. Then they discovered that they had underestimated the amount of granite they would have to blast through under the city, and a few other things, and even now, with most of it complete, there are some partial lines.
In the case of my wife, the problem is that the commuter train swings down from Baltimore, and tries to take a relatively short route into DC. while providing a lot of free parking to encourage commuters. Thus, it will not swing back towards Annapolis, and it needs to be somewhat outside of Bowie proper to have a lot of cheap land for the free parking. Now, by this time there are enough commuters from Annapolis to Washington that another line, running from just outside of Annapolis and perhaps sharing tracks with the original line, would be justified. However, the original train is not nearly filled to capacity, and would lose some commuters if the second train were created. It would, then, be very chancy that the Annapolis train would get the ridership to justify all the hassle and expense.
I just indicate the kinds of things that influence how these matters are decided......... |
