| Page 2 of 2 < |
Will the Purple Line Be Built?
The year before Ehrlich's election, Gov. Parris Glendening expanded the project from a four-mile corridor between Bethesda and Silver Spring to 14 miles from Bethesda to New Carrollton. This expansion altered the character of the project. For example, the transitway must now be double-tracked in narrowly constrained corridors previously planned as a single track. Furthermore, the transitway must be threaded through many additional neighborhoods, raising new right of way issues. Nevertheless, much has already been accomplished. Two key projects -- transit centers at Silver Spring and Takoma/Langley Park -- are fully funded and scheduled to start construction within months, representing an initial investment of $87 million.
The project has advanced on schedule in anticipation of a draft environmental impact statement next spring despite several obstacles. The engineering challenges of getting the transitway over or around narrow CSX-owned right of way and on through east Silver Spring communities are genuine.
  |
The belief that this project was ready to be built as a light rail is based on confusion between the previous status of the shorter 4-mile version and the much more ambitious 14-mile project. Any new transit project must meet the increasingly rigorous cost-effectiveness standards set by the Federal Transit Administration. Projected ridership and the time saved by riders must be balanced against the cost to build. Moreover, new FTA rules require us to develop a new computer model to more accurately predict ridership (work that the Maryland Transit Administration and Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments are doing).
In order to pass muster with the FTA to qualify for federal funding, we are required to examine all viable options (including a no-build option). In fact, the Bi-County Transitway study includes an evaluation of six different "build" alternatives along the corridor -- three using light rail and three employing bus rapid transit. Any and all heavy rail options were taken off the table in 1996 during the Glendening administration due to excessive cost.
The Purple Line is moving forward following procedures mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the FTA.
-- Robert L. Flanagan
Hanover
is Maryland's secretary of
transportation.
