Maryland officials are moving ahead with plans for the proposed Purple Line, even as they await a state decision on what the transit line would look like.
The Maryland Department of Transportation is asking the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board to put a 16-mile light rail transit line into its long-range plan, according to a regional planning board memo.
The $1.4 billion proposal calls for starting work on the transit line in 2012 and having it running in 2017. The line would have 21 stations, stretching from the Bethesda Metrorail station to New Carrollton.
But state officials have not said if they want a light rail line, a bus rapid transit system or a different option to provide the long-sought east-west connection between Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
“We can’t wait a couple of months until the decision is made,” Maryland Transit Administration Purple Line project manager Michael Madden told The Examiner.
The state plans to apply for federal funding for the line in the fall, and the full project needs to be in the region’s long-term transportation plan. So the planners are putting in the proposal as a placeholder of sorts, until officials decide what to do with the transit line, he said.
“At this point we want to make sure the amount we are putting through is enough to go ahead,” Madden said. “We are guessing on the high side.”
The proposed line has been debated for more than 20 years but has faced resistance from some who live near its proposed location. Some residents supported a bus system instead of light rail, arguing it would cost less and save the popular Capital Crescent Trail that runs along the proposed right of way.
Montgomery and Prince George’s county officials have backed a light rail line. Madden said the proposal submitted so far was “very much in line with what the two counties” proposed.
State officials had anticipated making a decision about the transit line earlier this spring, but Madden said Gov. Martin O’Malley wasn’t expected to weigh in on the plan until June.
