The Montgomery County Council on Tuesday backed the construction of two reversible toll lanes on Interstate 270 and light rail for the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway, becoming the latest jurisdiction to vote on how to relieve traffic on the busy corridor.
Council members had been haggling since the summer on whether bus rapid transit or light rail would be better for the transitway. The final vote on the transit line split 6-3.
Their overall decisions, though, do not match up with those of other affected local jurisdictions — or even of their own county executive. So now state officials need to balance the various demands with the feasibility of getting anything built at all.
“The congestion will only get worse up there,” said Lon Anderson of the auto club AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Ultimately the County Council needs to say to the state, ‘Whatever you can get funding for, go get it built.’ We really are a beggar here.”
The state could be seeking federal funding simultaneously for three major transit proposals — the Purple Line in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, the Red Line in Baltimore, and the Corridor Cities Transitway. And it is alreadystruggling to pay its own bills, making any required local matches tough.
But Maryland officials have been studying Interstate 270 and Route 15 for years to find ways of relieving the pressure on the routes that serve as a key corridor to the Capital Beltway from Frederick County and as far as West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They have presented more than $4 billion worth of proposals that could widen I-270, add toll lanes and create a transit line of bus or light rail.
Yet Montgomery County came up with a specialized proposal not on the original menu, asking for two reversible lanes to be built instead of two lanes in each direction. Its request also calls for high-occupancy toll lanes, known as HOT lanes, that would charge tolls to use the special lanes for any vehicle that does not have multiple passengers.
It’s not yet clear how much the reversible lanes would cost. The state would need to study that option. State officials have said they hope to decide on a plan this winter.
