"Our over-reliance on cars and $4-per-gallon gasoline has led us to dig a really deep hole for ourselves. The Purple Line is the ladder that helps us climb up out of this hole toward the light of rational land use, friendly commutes and a stable climate." Mike Tidwell, director of CCAN


BUILD IT!
Newsletter of Purple Line NOW!
January 22, 2008

In this issue:
  1. O'MALLEY APPROVES $100 MILLION FOR THE PURPLE LINE
  2. PURPLE LINE ACTIVISTS MOURN PASSING OF SENATOR GWENDOLYN BRITT
  3. ASSESSMENT OF DATA CONTINUES AS MTA TACKLES ALIGNMENT
  4. MARKING FIVE YEARS OF PURPLE LINE ADVOCACY
  5. PURPLE LINE WILL SAVE TRANSIT-USERS SUBSTANTIAL TRAVEL TIME
  6. SLOW PROGRESS ON RED LINE/PURPLE LINE CONNECTION
  7. ADVOCATES FORM TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY FRIENDLY PURPLE LINE IN SILVER SPRING
  8. HERE WE GO LOOP DE LOOP
  9. SHORT RIDES
  10. UPCOMING EVENTS
  11. THIS NEWSLETTER
1) COALITION APPLAUDS O'MALLEY'S INFUSION OF $100 MILLION FOR PURPLE LINE

Purple Line supporters joined our legislative friends in Annapolis to hear Governor Martin O'Malley and Lt. Governor Anthony Brown describe how they will move the Purple Line forward. Enough funding was approved to cover design costs for the Purple Line. Federal approval of the project, expected in Fall 2008, is required before Preliminary Engineering (PE) for the Purple Line can begin. And the PE must be completed before FTA approval will be granted to begin construction. For more see:
Back on Track in 2008

2) PURPLE LINE ACTIVISTS MOURN PASSING OF SENATOR GWENDOLYN BRITT

We are sorry about the untimely passing of the leader of Prince George's Senate delegation, Gwen Britt, and wish to send our sincere condolences to Senator Britt's family. Senator Britt was a long-time supporter of the Purple Line, and her efforts contributed greatly to the project’s most recent funding success.

3) ASSESSMENT OF DATA CONTINUES AS MTA TACKLES REMAINING ALIGNMENT CHALLENGES

PLN continues to review MTA data released in the middle of December. Even as the numbers continue to be refined, several things are evident:
  • the Purple Line will attract many daily riders: 42,000 to 47,000 on the 16 mile corridor
  • the highest-cost light rail option may be too expensive in the eyes of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to ensure federal funding support.
  • the medium-cost light rail option appears to be in a range that is affordable, but questions remain about travel speeds in areas where the line is proposed to operate in mixed traffic. PLN is concerned that traffic congestion may result in low performance in these areas, which would affect the performance throughout the system.
Considering the MTA data, PLN believes it is of utmost importance that MTA ensure that the Purple Line will be operationally predictable along its entire length, and will not be caught in traffic backups along the project route. We will work hard over the next months to ensure that a light rail plan is refined that will be efficient AND a source of pride for residents of neighborhoods through which it passes.

4) MARKING FIVE YEARS OF PURPLE LINE ADVOCACY

A group of activists formed the Coalition to Build the Inner Purple Line in January 2003. We changed our name to Purple Line NOW! last year, but our mission remains the same and we are proud of the success we have had, especially over the past year. Support for our organization has grown on both the environmental and business sides, as has the political consensus for the Purple Line. Both County Councils, County Executives and majorities of the both county's legislative delegations are now on record in support of the Purple Line. Thanks to the leadership of Governor O’Malley and Transportation Secretary Porcari, the progress in completing the EIS since last January has been tremendous, with completion expected in 2008.

We will need the support of all our allies as the final EIS is scrutinized at public hearings to continue broadening our base of supporters and as we seek additional funding from the State for final design and construction. To continue our efforts, we need your political and financial support. For information see: How You Can Help

5) PURPLE LINE WILL SAVE TRANSIT-USERS SUBSTANTIAL TRAVEL TIME

While MTA’s travel time projections continue to shift as the analysis deepens, it is clear that transit riders will be winners with this project. For example, a trip from the Bethesda Metrorail station to the College Park campus of UMD currently takes 60 minutes by Metrorail and UM Shuttle, or 66 minutes via the J-4 bus. The travel time for this bus ride is projected to increase to 78 minutes in 2030. In contrast, the medium option for the light rail line is projected by MTA to take 34 minutes, so transit riders using the Purple Line will save more than an hour each day. Since the Purple Line will be integrated with the Bethesda and Silver Spring Metrorail stations, similar dramatic improvements will be had for riders initiating their trips at other Red Line stations like Wheaton, Friendship Heights or Rockville.

Langley Park residents will be big winners, as well. The 52-minute bus trip from Bethesda to Langley Park is projected to increase to 62 minutes in 2030, despite traffic system management efforts. The Purple Line medium scenario, however, will shorten the trip from 52 minutes to 24 minutes. Here again, daily time savings for a round trip will be almost one full hour (56 minutes).

This significant travel time savings will attract new riders and is likely to increase demand for housing along the Purple Line route. This translates into a dramatic positive impact for communities such as Long Branch, Langley Park, Riverdale and other localities along the Purple Line.

6) SLOW PROGRESS ON RED LINE / PURPLE LINE CONNECTION
In 2006, an outpouring of support for the proposed South Entrance of the Bethesda Metrorail station (over 400 letters were sent to the County Council) sparked Montgomery County Council to commit to move the project forward in advance of the Purple Line. Unfortunately, little progress has been made. When John Catoe was hired as General Manager of WMATA in the spring 2007, he disbanded the agency’s Construction/Engineering group and work stopped on the South Entrance project. WMATA intended to bring the project to the 35% design level, and then resources would be sought to complete design and construction.

At the request of the Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPWT), MTA/MDOT agreed to undertake the project in September 2007 to advance the engineering phase. The development of a formal agreement has not yet taken place. MTA met with DPWT on January 14th. We will provide an update on progress in the near future.

7) SILVER SPRING ADVOCATES FORMS TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY-FRIENDLY PURPLE LINE
Over the past two months, a group has formed to identify the most neighborhood-friendly alignment for the Purple Line through eastern Silver Spring.

The group, Silver Spring Advocates: Supporting Our Community and the Purple Line, is working for a Purple Line that has a clear positive impact on the corridor through which it passes. This is typical of the approach taken to develop successful light rail projects throughout the world. In Paris, for example, the T-3 project took a traffic-choked inner beltway and created a light rail line on a green ribbon of grass tracks flanked by thousands of trees, new bike lanes, crosswalks, sidewalks and lighting at a cost of $40 million per mile - far less than the $250 to 350 million commonly cited as the cost range for underground transit lines.

While the Purple Line concept enjoys broad support throughout the area, the connection from downtown Silver Spring east to University Boulevard remains controversial. This is a critical link for the project - an alignment must be pinned down before the project can go into preliminary engineering. The group's coordinator, Jon Elkind, is a resident of the Seven Oaks neighborhood through which several purple line options pass. He commented:

"Anyone can see that traffic is choking our community. Wayne Avenue is jammed with cars today -- most of them driving lots faster than the speed limit. It is not a safe situation today, and that's even before you think about the environmental damage of all those cars. A well-designed Purple Line running on Wayne Avenue can increase the quality of life in our area. It can help make Wayne be more pedestrian-friendly, quieter, and safer. But for this all to happen, we need state and county authorities to commit to building the Purple Line right."

To join or for information, contact: Jonathan Elkind.

8) HERE WE GO LOOP DE LOOP
The proposal to eliminate the Prince George's County segment of the Purple Line by leaders of the Columbia Country Club and anti-transit activists in Chevy Chase has again reared its ugly head in the form of a letter writing campaign. While put in terms of saving the trail, one of the first participants in the campaign is J. Paul McNamara, Vice President of the Columbia Country Club.

PLN has made its opposition to this diversion clear to State and County leaders. We support a bi-county transit line and are also actively working to ensure that the Capital Crescent Trail is completed as part of the joint use project for the Georgetown Branch. What we said about the loop in 2003 remains relevant: Purple Line Loop

9) SHORT RIDES
  • ARLINGTON PUSHES FOR COLUMBIA PIKE STREETCAR
    The Columbia Pike Streetcar initiative got another boost this MONTH when the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority approved almost $40 million in funding for the estimated $120 million project, placing the project 3rd on the Authority’s 35 list of project priorities.

    The Streetcar will run for 4.7 miles along the Pike between Pentagon City and Skyline and is a cooperative effort between Arlington and Fairfax Counties. It builds on the success of a major upgrade to bus service on the corridor, which has seen ridership grow to around 15,000 people a day. Transit ridership is projected to increase by 25 to 50 percent, which will help offset congestion in the corridor that is undergoing an economic renaissance.

    "The streetcar project is needed to move people more efficiently up and down the pike," said Lander Allin, president of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, at a recent meeting on the project. "We need a transit option that will get more people out of their cars."

  • HOUSTON RAIL EXPANSION PLANNED
    The City of Houston is seeking to build 41 additional miles of light rail and 8 miles of commuter rail over the next two decades. The expansion was initiated when voters supported it in a 2003 referendum. The city would be adding these lines to the 7.5 mile starter line which opened in 2004 and already carries 45,000 passengers per day – the number of riders not originally projected to be achieved until 2020. The transit authority reports that more than 5,500 fans ride the LRT to travel to games at Reliant Stadium.

    In October of this year, the transit authority decided to move forward with LRT instead of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on the four corridors, citing a change in FTA rules that acknowledges the reality that potential transit riders have a bias for rail resulting in higher ridership for LRT lines.

    Construction is to begin on 4 new corridors in 2008, with groundbreaking for the 5th starting in 2009. All five rail expansion lines are scheduled to be completed in 2012. Houston decided not to wait for federal funding to implement their plan, although the hope for matching funds for the North and Southeast routes persists. Houston is working with a private partner, Houston Transit Partners, to raise funds for the project, and also expects to raise $630 million from bonds backed by a local sales tax.

    Houston’s Metro website is Houston Metro. A Light Rail Now article on the LRT/BRT switch may be viewed at: Light Rail Now!

  • CHARLOTTE RIDERSHIP EXCEEDING PROJECTIONS
    Ridership on Charlotte’s new light rail line is averaging 12,000 per day, which is in-line with estimates for the first year of service of 9,000. The line opened in late November, 2007.

10) UPCOMING EVENTS
  • January 22 – Montgomery County Master Plan meeting, 7:30 PM MNCPPC
  • January 23 – SSRAB Neighborhoods Committee meeting (PL on agenda) 7:30 PM
  • January 28 – College Park East Campus planning meeting (UMD Stamp Student Union 7:30 PM)
  • January 30 – Mont. County Council town hall at AFI Silver Theater
  • Feb 2 – Woodside area trolley/trail walk in Silver Spring, 1 PM. For information contact: Wayne Phyillaier.


11) THIS NEWSLETTER
This newsletter is produced by volunteer supporters of Purple Line NOW! which was founded in January, 2003 as the Coalition to Build the Inner Purple Line (CBIPL) by representatives of business, labor, environmental and community organizations to promote a light rail transit line connecting Bethesda, Silver Spring, Long Branch, Takoma/ Langley Crossroads, College Park and the University of Maryland, Riverdale Park and New Carrollton. We support completion of the hiker-biker trail between Bethesda and Silver Spring, as well as pedestrian enhancements as part of the transit project elsewhere along the alignment. Send news tips to: The Editor.


68,000 riders each weekday is huge! Counting down to completion of Purple Line DEIS; Latest news: Latest News; How you can help



See: Calendar of Events.

We need you to help keep the Purple Line a state and county priority. Write a letter, make a call or send an e-mail in support of the Purple Line today. See: Contact List