The proposed Purple Line won a unanimous endorsement from regional transportation planners Wednesday, and in the process bumped more than a half-billion dollars from two highway projects.
The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board voted to add the proposed light rail line between New Carrollton and Bethesda to its long-range plans, a key step needed for the project to start seeking federal funding.
Elected officials in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties already had backed the controversial light rail option that has been debated for some two decades, but Wednesday’s vote marked the first regionwide endorsement of the 16-mile line.
“It’s good to have unanimous support from the region,” Maryland Del. William Bronrott, D-Bethesda/Potomac, said after the meeting.
A handful of project opponents turned out in a last-ditch effort to convince the board to reconsider the line. They offered a petition signed by 18,000 people, saying a 3-mile stretch of the popular Capital Crescent Trail would lose all its mature trees under the plan.
But state and local officials said the land was always intended for transit, as the trail runs along an old rail bed. They added that the proposed line would include a trail for bikers and walkers.
“The MTA is committed to working with the community in the design of the trail,” said Donald Halligan, the Maryland Department of Transportation’s planning and capital programming director.
The proposed line would carry an estimated 62,500 riders each day, creating a new east-west connection to the Metrorail, Amtrak and MARC lines that radiate from the District. Costs are now estimated to be $1.68 billion, incorporating projected inflation.
But to add the project to the region’s long-term plans, the board agreed to remove two planned construction projects on MD 28/MD 198 and MD 3 in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties for a total of $536 million to be applied to the Purple Line.
The project has yet to be officially approved as light rail by the state. The governor’s office is expected to weigh in later this summer.
