Snags in the Proposed Purple Line

Wayne Phyillaier was correct when he said that the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail does not support or oppose the Purple Line and that the Coalition to Build the Inner Purple Line "has many trail advocates among its members" [letters, May 20].

However, when he said, "We do not have to choose between transit and trail," he overlooked the fact that at certain points the trail right of way is too narrow to support both surface transit and a trail unless additional land is taken. Also, unless the route includes tunneling, many thousands of trees that make the trail a treasure will have to be cut down.

The most broad-based county organization in favor of both trail and train is the Montgomery County Civic Federation, but its support of transit was wisely made conditional on putting the rail line underground.

I. DEAN AHMAD

Bethesda

The writer is a past president of the Montgomery County Civic Federation.

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The May 14 Metro story "Purple Line Emerging as Issue in Race; Montgomery Executive Candidates Debate Details" noted the willingness of Montgomery County politicians to invest billions in an "inner line," which the State Highway Administration says will not reduce east-west traffic significantly. The article also noted the assumption that the line would promote development.

Granting for the sake of argument that the line would be used heavily, that people would drive to Silver Spring to use it and that the county would build still more parking garages, already-grim rush-hour traffic would move to gridlock under this plan.

Concerns about gridlock and development moved the Silver Spring Traffic Coalition to reject a trolley connecting Bethesda and Silver Spring nearly two decades ago when developer Lloyd Moore and then-County Executive Sidney Kramer proposed it to advance the master plan to redevelop downtown Silver Spring.

Impartial studies of projected ridership of such a line haven't been conducted since, but at the time the trolley was projected to move too few people to cover its operating costs, let alone its capitalization. The only economic justification would have been expanding development and, perhaps, the tax base. A surplus of office space in the late '80s killed that.

Public money could be better used to relieve congestion in Silver Spring and the eastern half of Montgomery County. County Executive Douglas M. Duncan's original east-west Purple Line, north of the Beltway, could mitigate north-south traffic and bring relief to many more people than an inner line would. The case for the inner line was economic expediency. With billions in the air now, that case fails.

Congestion is a regional problem. As one may conclude from reading the Purple Line article, pressure, not wisdom, still guides politics in Montgomery County.

CLARENCE STEINBERG

Silver Spring