State officials will update concerned groups about progress on the long-delayed Purple Line tonight, but will likely not offer any concrete estimates on when the project might actually start, frustrated supporters said.
Maryland Transit Administration Project Manager Mike Madden said Monday he was prepared to discuss ridership estimates that are a couple months from being finished and a new round of public hearings on the route that will come in November.
But members of the Action Committee for Transit, an advisory group that has led support for the Purple Line in the county, said they are aggravated by years of delays and ready for real work to begin.
ACT treasurer John Carroll said, “There’s been a lot of state taxpayer money spent studying, restudying. … We should start doing things.”
Madden said studies are still being done to determine how many people would take the Purple Line, which would connect Bethesda, Silver Spring and College Park. Ridership is likely to vary widely depending on whether the route is developed as bus-rapid transit or as a light rail line, Madden said.
Madden would not say exactly how many people he thinks would take the Purple Line daily, but said an estimate of about 50,000 “he seems pretty right.” Officials have moved slowly on the Purple Line, which has a price tag estimated of more than $1 billion, including hundreds of millions in federal funding which will be required to finish the job. It was put on the back burner under former Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
The project was delayed again earlier this year by state officials who said more time was needed to determine ridership and cost-effectiveness figures. That further postponement has strained the patience of supporters who have seen the cycle of studies and hearings play out before with no tangible results.
Ben Ross, an ACT vice president, said Monday, “This latest delay is necessitated to dig us out of the hole that the previous delays created. … I think it’s really important that the state take the time to get the numbers right. At the same time, they should get it done as quickly as they can while still doing it right.”
