Most Montgomery County Council members support using bus rapid transit on the planned Corridor Cities Transitway along Interstate 270, reversing a decision made in 2009.
In November 2009, Montgomery officials signed a joint letter to the Maryland Department of Transportation recommending that light rail be used to carry residents along the I-270 corridor. But after an economic impact analysis pointed out the benefits of bus rapid transit, or BRT, County Executive Ike Leggett and the County Council are changing their views.
The council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee voted unanimously Thursday to recommend using BRT, and Councilmen Marc Elrich, D-at large, and Craig Rice, D-Germantown, also gave nods of agreement. The issue is set to go to the full council Tuesday.
Gov. Martin O’Malley will make an official recommendation in the spring before submitting the plan to the Federal Transit Administration for funding.
Although BRT and light rail are likely to bring the same economic impact, tax revenue and jobs, BRT will bring those benefits 10 years sooner, the report by consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff concluded.
Between 2014 and 2050, BRT is expected to bring 588,071 jobs and $416 million in tax revenue to the county, according to the report. In the same period, light rail is expected to bring 380,659 jobs and $238 million in tax revenue because of the time lag.
BRT is estimated to cost significantly less to build — $491 million rather than the $772 million that light rail would cost.
Because the system is less expensive, it has a better chance of beating out competing projects for federal funding, according to council staff. It can be built incrementally as funds become available, unlike a light rail system.
But some officials and community members expressed concern that Montgomery County residents will not be willing to use buses.
“One of the things that we will have to get over with a bus is the fact that it is indeed a bus,” said Marilyn Balcombe, chairwoman of the Corridor Cities Transitway Coalition. She urged caution about branding the system using the word “bus” and suggested the county not use refurbished buses.
But Council President Roger Berliner, D-Bethesda and committee chairman, insisted that BRT defies most residents’ notions of buses.
“This is not your father’s bus,” he said. “It will look and feel more like light rail than anything that we have today.”
Others preferred light rail but agreed that BRT makes the most economic sense.
“We need to go forward with whatever we can at this point,” said Rice, a self-proclaimed “light-rail person.”
