Green Track, the greener way to run trains through cities

ArchPlan, as a member of the Baltimore Red Line design team, was instrumental in proposing green tracks as a way to make the new Red Line an even better neighbor in the streets of Baltimore.

Green tracks have become increasingly popular in Europe, where sleek new light rail vehicles glide over grass carpets as smooth as any American front lawn (Paris, Grenoble Strasbourg, and many other Cities). My hometown of Stuttgart introduced grass track back in the 80ties. I recall a traffic calming effort where I was as Borough Council member one of the instigators. A short-cut traffic connection adjacent to a park in front of a historic bath complex was closed and integrated into the park except for a traversing tram line which was constructed with grass track. As a result the tracks blended perfectly in with the park, car traffic was calmed and transit had the right of way.

The climate in Baltimore can be less forgiving, especially the heat in the summer and the long dry spells can be hard on any vegetation, let alone grass in a median. For this reason MTA started a test program where three areas on the existing light rail line were temporarily set up as an "agricultural" experiment. Instead of the ballast one can see patches of different types of grasses and sedums. Sedum has become popular as a hardy vegetation that works well on green roofs. If you are interested in these test areas, take a look at the vegetation between the tracks north and south of the Cultural Center Light Rail Station or if you live in the suburbs at the Ferndale Station in Anne Arundel County.

The experiment is constantly being evaluated and will be completed at the end of the growing season 2011. It is our hope that at least one of the tested plant materials will do well enough to allow us to includes this design feature into the engineering of the Red Line moving forward now.

Klaus Philipsen presented on this topic at the 2010 RailVolution Conference in Portland in a session about Sustainable Facilities.

Baltimore Light Rail Test Track at Cultural Center