The Inner Purple Line in Maryland and hot transit photos from Portland

The "original" Sierra Club purple line concept is more far reaching than the plan being developed by the State of Maryland.

I was looking at the newsletter of the Coalition for Smart Growth which mentions that the efforts for the Bi-County Transitway, the "Inner Purple Line" in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, seem to be moving along. This proposal is for light rail or bus rapid transit, rather than underground heavy rail comparable to the WMATA subway.

There is a meeting of the Coalition to Build the Inner Purple Line at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Auditorium, 8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, on Friday, January 20th, from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

The MAX light rail photos below, from Portland Ground, show what a light rail service could look like for the Maryland suburbs, although I don't know how much industrial area there is for such a service to ride through. MAX cars are low to the ground in comparison to the Light Rail system used by Maryland currently.

However, as the CEO of the San Diego Trolley System says in a December article in Railway Age, the transit industry needs to focus on standardization, rather than every community developing its own specifications and systems, which as I learned in "Cost Accounting" (also called "Managerial Economics") doesn't allow for learning curve benefits to kick in and lower costs.

Commute like a train, party like a rock star. Photos from Portland Ground.

Max Light Rail passes along 84 freeway through Sullivan's Gulch.

Max in Sullivan's Gulch, Tri Met Light Rail.

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