By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Supporters of a north-south transit line in upper Montgomery County to help weary commuters escape Interstate 270's traffic jams are promoting a new slogan: "Good to go."
Half the land needed is publicly owned or set aside. As mega-projects go, its estimated cost of $450 million to $778 million is on the cheaper side. Business leaders and area lawmakers are backing it, and it has no organized opposition.
All that might make it good to go, but few people seem to have heard of the idea, and the project appears to be at a disadvantage in the struggle for scarce transit funding.
Plans for a 14-mile Corridor Cities Transitway get scant attention compared with the proposed 16-mile Purple Line linking Bethesda, Silver Spring and New Carrollton. Purple Line supporters and opponents hold dueling news conferences, circulate petitions and plant yard signs. Even the Purple Line name, some transportation watchers say, gives it an aura of belonging in a region with a color-coded Metrorail system.
Many people aren't sure exactly which "corridor cities" the transitway would serve, though. (Answer: Gaithersburg, Germantown and Clarksburg.)
"One of our biggest challenges is how to get anyone to pay attention to it because there's no controversy around it," said Montgomery County Council President Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty), who represents the area.
The Transitway and Purple Line are proposed as either light-rail lines or busways -- unlike Metro lines, which are heavy rail -- and nearly all aboveground. Montgomery officials say they support both.
But soon state transportation officials will seek federal transit money, and it is unlikely that the Federal Transit Administration would fund two projects so close to each other, even though they would serve different populations. Whichever project does not get the federal money could face significant delays.
State planners say their studies show that the Purple Line, estimated to cost between $420 million to $1.75 billion, is competitive for federal money as either light rail or a busway but that the Transitway looks cost-effective only as a busway.
The planners say that the Purple Line, which would serve more densely populated areas and connect three Metrorail lines, would attract as many as 68,000 trips each day and that the Corridor Cities Transitway would have up to 30,000.
Supporters of the Transitway say they are hoping for rail. The lack of public attention to it could work in its favor, they say, because so much of the Purple Line's notoriety comes from the influential opponents in its path. They include the affluent Columbia Country Club, the Town of Chevy Chase, and some walkers and cyclists who use the popular Georgetown Branch Trail between Bethesda and Silver Spring. Some residents east of Silver Spring oppose it because the Purple Line would run through their neighborhoods.
"The Purple Line gets more ink because it has more conflict," said council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), who said he backs both projects. "The Corridor Cities Transitway has almost universal support."
The Transitway would extend Metro's Red Line northwest from the Shady Grove Station. It would serve fast-growing areas popping up around 30-year-old plans for a transit line. Transitway supporters say their greatest concern is that too many developers want it to run past their high-rise condo tower or office park. As the route grows to serve more areas, supporters say, it could make the ride too long to attract enough riders to help pay for it.
But Transitway supporters say they are also optimistic that those developers and large employers might be willing to help pay for it, an attractive option when government transportation funds are dwindling. Because the areas near the Purple Line are built out, transportation observers say, it has far fewer opportunities for new development and fewer private entities available to share the costs.
"Politically, the Corridor Cities Transitway is much more palatable to most elected Montgomery officials at the state level," said a Montgomery official who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss both proposals.
The two Washington area projects also face competition for federal funds from a third Maryland proposal -- a 14-mile Red Line through Baltimore. That project, which is being designed, has state funding to proceed through one year of construction. The Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway are funded only through their engineering and design.
The state's financial commitment to a project is a key factor in clinching federal money, said Henry M. Kay, deputy administrator of planning for the Maryland Transit Administration. However, he said, federal officials also consider cost-effectiveness, mainly whether a project would attract enough riders and save them enough time to warrant the investment.
Kay said letters, e-mails and phone calls for and against a Purple Line outnumber Corridor Cities Transitway correspondence by 10 to 1. Although controversy might affect politicians' support, Kay said, it has no effect on planners' calculations about cost-effectiveness.
"We have technical observations and benefits we can quantify," he said.
That cost-benefit analysis so far appears to favor a Purple Line, at least for the more popular light-rail options. Development planned for the I-270 corridor does not appear to attract enough riders to offset the higher cost of light rail, Kay said. As planners continue to study different routes, only the less popular busway option would meet the federal criteria for cost-effectiveness, according to the state study.
The Purple Line also has a key political advantage: Unlike the transitway, it would run through two counties -- Montgomery and Prince George's -- giving it double the political pull for state money.
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