Harford County officials are considering solutions!

Hi. I emailed County Executive David Craig about the article in the Havre De Grace Record and the need for more parking. Within a few minutes, he emailed me back and asked if there was a day he could visit the station to talk with the commuters. Anyone who wants to suggest a day/time should post a comment here or email it to aberdeenparking@gmail.com.

Here's how Craig responded to my email:

"We have been actively seeking a new site for the train station which also means working with State transportation officials and those on APG. We need a station that can also handle a reverse commute—people coming into the county to work at APG. The main sites at which we are looking are located near Rt 715."

I replied via email that we also needed a short-term solution to the parking crunch. In addition, I noted that the vast majority of the signers of the petition lived in the north, which meant any move south would worsen, not improve, road congestion, air pollution, etc. Given the geography of the signers, I said that if a move was necessary, it looked like it would be optimal to move the station north to, say, Havre De Grace. Although, I added, it might be most cost effective to keep the station where it is and either build more parking or create a train-timed shuttlebus system so that residents of Bel Air and Havre De Grace wouldn't have to drive.

Here's his reply:
"The actual move would only be 1.2 miles. When I was mayor of Havre de Grace a study was conducted about having a train station there. The alignment of the tracks and the fact that trains would back up on the bridge approach were two factors against it. There was actually no real spot that was usable until you got so far south of Havre de Grace that you would be within a mile of Aberdeen’s station. We are also working on a real mass transit intra county system of buses.

When I campaigned for county executive in 2006 we visited the two sites in Harford County during the morning commute it appeared that a large number were from outside Maryland. I do not doubt that people will use the service. When we expanded the parking lot at Edgewood and doubled the number of spaces they were filled in a day."