The May 10 Local Opinions essay by Carol Park and Sean Kennedy, “Stop throwing good taxpayer money after the Purple Line,” noted the impending derailment of the project because of a disagreement between the construction firms building the line and the state of Maryland. There’s no question that legal and environmental delays have created problems, and deciding who pays for cost overruns to date needs to be resolved. Public-private partnerships are inevitably quite complex and difficult to manage, and are not the panacea some portray them to be.

However, contrary to the essay, the Purple Line is worth building. It will provide a much-needed east-west rapid-transit option connecting with Metrorail’s Red, Green and Orange lines, MARC, Amtrak, and local and regional bus services. Many thousands of workers need an efficient way to travel to job centers in Silver Spring, Bethesda and the District, and students commuting to the University of Maryland want to get to their classes in College Park without needing a car. Communities inside the Beltway will benefit from an arc of economic opportunity, and we all will benefit from fewer cars on the road and cleaner air that results. 

It’s up to the state to resolve the current disagreement so the Purple Line, and all the promise that it holds, can become a reality.

Brian Ditzler, Silver Spring