Maryland should take a lesson from Virginia’s mistakes and scuttle its plans for an unaffordable 16-mile light-rail line connecting New Carrollton and Bethesda before it’s too late. Like the Silver Line, the cost of the Purple Line continues to escalate. After two increases in two years, it’s now up to $2.15 billion, and the state hasn’t set aside a penny to build it.

The Federal Transit Administration provided $900 million to fund Phase 1 of the $5.6 billion Silver Line, but refused to fund Phase 2, leaving the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority with a problem it still has not solved. The group Reston 20/20 predicts that jacking up tolls on the Dulles Toll Road to astronomical levels to pay for Phase 2 will force toll-avoiding drivers onto local Fairfax County roads and worsen Northern Virginia’s already bad traffic congestion.