ANNAPOLIS, Md. —Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday unveiled a plan to invest $135 million in transit improvements for Baltimore City and the surrounding area.

Hogan arrived on a bus to make the announcement at a news conference at the west Baltimore MARC station. The plan includes making the city's bus routes more efficient, among other improvements.

Hogan called the plan "exciting" and "transformative" for the city and said it will provide immediate improvement for those traveling east to west in the Baltimore area.

"Our new plan will connect Marylanders to 745,000 jobs in and around Baltimore and will give 205,000 more people access to high-frequency transit," Hogan said.

According to the Maryland Transit Administration, the multi-phase plan will create an interconnected transit system, known as BaltimoreLink.

Hogan said the plan will also help unify the transit network while renaming the various modes of transportation: LocalLink (Local Bus), Light RailLink, Metro SubwayLink and MobilityLink to create an interconnected transit system. Other key elements of the BaltimoreLink system include transitways, transit hubs and transit signal priority.

The plan includes redesigning the entire local and express bus systems throughout Baltimore and adding 12 new high-frequency, color-coded bus routes that officials said will improve connections to jobs and other transit modes. The buses will be equipped with technology to prolong green lights and shorten red lights.

The plan calls for six transit hubs that will link transportation options. It calls for pedestrian and bike paths at the West Baltimore MARC Station, Penn Station, Johns Hopkins Bayview, Lexington Market and Broadway North.

State funds will initiate new bus service from Baltimore to Aberdeen Proving Ground, expand existing service from Baltimore City to Columbia and create a new bus connection from Annapolis to Kent Island.

The plan will also offer express bus link services to improve suburb-to-suburb job connections to areas such as Fort Meade, Owings Mills, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Towsontown Center, Pikesville and White Marsh.

"For the time ever in history, the people of Baltimore, and those in the surrounding jurisdictions, will be able to travel conveniently, efficiently and affordably from where they live to where they work," Hogan said.

"The plan that Governor Hogan is unveiling is a great step toward providing Baltimore with a first-class bus system capable of carrying our residents to job opportunities," Baltimore City Council President Jack Young said.

"In order for us to become a first-class city, we need economic development," said Baltimore City Sen. Catherine Pugh, D-District 40.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn attended the news conference, along with MTA Administrator Paul Comfort.

Rahn said they are "blowing up and replacing" Baltimore's transit system.

"What an awesome day to kick off a terrific plan to blow up and replace the transit system of Baltimore," Rahn said.

In June, the Hogan administration announced it would not move forward with a proposed light rail project in the city known as the Red Line. Rahn said at the time that the east-west public transit line in Baltimore with a $2.6 billion price tag was "fatally flawed." The Hogan administration has been looking at other options to address transportation concerns in the city.

Hogan would not say this plan is the alternative to the Red Line project, but he didn't hold back his disdain, declaring a train to nowhere makes no sense, adding neither does the city's current transit system, which "is a mess. It is poorly integrated and simply does not make any sense."

Governor's transit plan meets mixed reaction

People who use public transportation daily to get around Baltimore and other parts of Maryland point to where the system is lacking and what is needed to improve it.

"It's just unbelievable. Sometimes you have to miss a bus because the buses are so packed," said Jaclyn Wynn.

"Certain stops need more buses, some that go way out, and you have to wait an hour for a bus. They need to figure out what stops need more buses," said Robert White.

"I think it will complicate our system, because it's slightly complicated already, and those of us who go to work have to use the subway, the light rail or MARC train. It's going to complicate it," said David Clark.

Adding more buses is part of the governor's plan, but Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who was not at the press conference, said the plan is going to do very little to advance the transportation needs of city residents.

"The state's obligation for state law is to provide for public transportation and the public through infrastructure. The plan put forth today basically says he's going to invest in making buses run on time and having an efficient bus service. That's not transformative," Rawlings-Blake told 11 News.