Notice2025-14732
Rescinding the Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement: Baltimore to Washington Superconducting Magnetic Levitation Project
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
August 4, 2025
Issuing agencies
Transportation DepartmentFederal Railroad Administration
Abstract
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is announcing that it is rescinding its Notice of Intent (NOI) and will not prepare the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Baltimore- Washington Superconducting Magnetic Levitation (SCMAGLEV) Project described therein. FRA previously issued a NOI to prepare an EIS in the Federal Register on November 15, 2016.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 147 (Monday, August 4, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 147 (Monday, August 4, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36518-36519]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-14732]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
Rescinding the Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement: Baltimore to Washington Superconducting Magnetic
Levitation Project
AGENCY: Federal Railroad Administration, Department of Transportation.
ACTION: Notice of rescission.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is announcing that
it is rescinding its Notice of Intent (NOI) and will not prepare the
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Baltimore-
Washington Superconducting Magnetic Levitation (SCMAGLEV) Project
described therein. FRA previously issued a NOI to prepare an EIS in the
Federal Register on November 15, 2016.
DATES: This rescission is effective immediately.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please contact Marlys Osterhues,
Office of Environmental Program Management, 202-774-8646, or via email
at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#375a56455b4e441958444352455f4252447753584319505841"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1974786b75606a37766a6d7c6b716c7c6a597d766d377e766f">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: FRA awarded the Maryland Department of
Transportation (MDOT) $27,800,000 through FRA's Magnetic Levitation
Deployment grants program (MAGLEV Grants Program), authorized under 23
U.S.C. 322, note, for preliminary engineering and environmental review
for the SCMAGLEV Project. The award was made through Cooperative
Agreement No. FR-MPS-0002-16. The project would have deployed a new
SCMAGLEV system between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD, with an
intermediary stop at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood
Marshall (BWI) Airport. MDOT partnered with Baltimore Washington Rapid
Rail (BWRR) to design the SCMAGLEV system. BWRR would have been
responsible for construction and operation of the system. FRA, in
cooperation with MDOT, initiated an EIS and published an NOI on
November 15, 2016, at 81 FR 85319. FRA published a draft EIS (DEIS) for
the project on January 15, 2021. Following the end of the 2021 public
comment period on the DEIS, FRA paused the environmental review process
on the Federal Permitting Dashboard.\1\ The purpose of the pause was to
allow MDOT and BWRR additional time to agree on funding to continue the
environmental review process and allow FRA and MDOT additional time to
review project elements and consider next steps. Since August 24, 2021,
the environmental review process has remained paused.
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\1\ <a href="https://www.permits.performance.gov/permitting-project/dot-projects/baltimore-washington-superconducting-maglev-project">https://www.permits.performance.gov/permitting-project/dot-projects/baltimore-washington-superconducting-maglev-project</a>.
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FRA has determined preparation of the final EIS for the SCMAGLEV
Project is no longer feasible. FRA has found the current SCMAGLEV
Project alternatives are likely to result in unresolvable significant
effects to federal agencies, federal property, and critical agency
infrastructure and operations during project construction and
operation, including to the National Security Agency (NSA), U.S.
Department of Defense (DOD) and Fort George G. Meade, National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S Department of
Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Secret Service (USSS), U.S. Department of
Interior (DOI)--U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Park
Service (NPS), and the Department of Labor (DOL). Following extensive
consultation with these agencies, FRA determined the direct effects
would have substantial negative effects to agency operations or to
important resources managed by federal agencies. In addition, indirect
effects would also significantly impair critical infrastructure and
operations and ongoing agency missions.
FRA reviewed project elements to consider whether the DEIS
alternatives could be modified to address the agencies' concerns. FRA
considered whether modifying the project design of the alternatives,
such as locating the SCMAGLEV system entirely underground, would avoid
impacts to federal agencies; however, based on agency coordination, FRA
found this modification would not address the agencies' collective
concerns due to the location of the tunnel and the necessity to locate
required ancillary features aboveground (e.g., fresh air/emergency
egress [FA/EE]). In addition, BWRR had previously raised technical
concerns with a completely underground system, citing cost and
constructability, and advised FRA that its 180-acre trainset
maintenance facility (TMF) likely could not be located underground.\2\
Similarly, FRA considered whether certain project elements (e.g., TMF,
FA/EE facilities) could be relocated to avoid impacts. However, BWRR
has noted that the system is designed to meet the Central Japan Railway
Company's (JRC's) \3\ requirements for SCMAGLEV operations and
relocation of project elements like the TMF would be inconsistent with
JRC's requirements.\4\
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\2\ DEIS at 3-7.
\3\ JRC is the SCMAGLEV technology owner.
\4\ See MDE, TMF Site Selection Discussion Points for USACE JPA
Questions January 25, 2021, available at: <a href="https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/water/WetlandsandWaterways/SiteAssets/Lists/SCMAGLEV/NewForm/Exhibit%20P%20%E2%80%93%20TMF%20Supplement.pdf">https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/water/WetlandsandWaterways/SiteAssets/Lists/SCMAGLEV/NewForm/Exhibit%20P%20%E2%80%93%20TMF%20Supplement.pdf</a>.
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In addition, FRA also considered whether the project's Purpose and
Need Statement, which was developed consistent with the statutory
requirements of the MAGLEV Grants Program and BWRR's technical
requirements for system safety and performance, constrained potential
modifications to the DEIS alternatives. For example, the Purpose and
Need Statement describes the project's objective to achieve optimal
speed. Based on BWRR's ridership analysis, a speed up to 310 mph would
be necessary to generate revenue to sustain the SCMAGLEV system,
accounting for other factors such as power consumption, aerodynamics,
and human comfort.\5\ However, achieving this top speed requires a
specific geometry for the SCMAGLEV guideway, which constrains the
ability to avoid sensitive resources, such as the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife-managed Patuxent Wildlife Refuge. In addition, the DEIS
Purpose and Need Statement was developed prior to the significant
federal investment in the Northeast Corridor (NEC) from the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is intended to improve
intercity passenger rail service along with NEC. Accordingly, many of
the conclusions of the Purpose and Need statement may no longer be
valid.
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\5\ DEIS at 3-2.
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FRA found the alternatives analyzed in the DEIS cannot be modified
to avoid, minimize, and mitigate significant effects to federal
agencies and federal property. On June 23, 2025, at the request of
BWRR, FRA coordinated a meeting with the federal land-owning and
permitted agencies, BWRR, MDOT and FRA representatives. During the
meeting, BWRR presented the proposed project alignment. In response,
the agencies emphasized that their previous comments and significant
concerns with the project described in the draft EIS remain, further
underscoring that the project is not feasible as proposed. Therefore,
FRA will not prepare a final EIS.
[[Page 36519]]
FRA received over 6,000 comments on the DEIS and attended three
public meetings with testimony from members of the public and other
stakeholders. FRA reviewed a high-level summary of the public comments
prepared by MDOT. Members of the public were generally supportive of
the use of SCMAGLEV technology; the development of a new transportation
option; as well as potential growth and economic benefits and job
creation from the project. Members of the public also raised concerns
with potential effects from project construction and operation, energy
consumption, and impacts to communities that would not be directly
served by the SCMAGLEV Project. By rescinding the NOI, FRA is not
precluding future deployment of SCMAGLEV technology in the United
States.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.
Robert Andrew Feeley,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2025-14732 Filed 8-1-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P
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