Purple Line open house tonight

Purple Line
Originally uploaded by rllayman

From Purple Line Now:

FINAL MTA PURPLE LINE OPEN HOUSE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY ON DEC.12: TRANSIT ADVOCATES URGE PROGRESS ON CAPITAL CRESCENT TRAIL BETWEEN BETHESDA AND SILVER SPRING

The Maryland Transit Administration will hold its final Montgomery County open house on Wednesday evening. The event will be at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School from between 5:00 and 8:30 p.m.

PURPLE LINE NOW! supports joint use of the Georgetown Branch right of way for the light rail transit line and Capital Crescent Trail. The right of way was purchased by Montgomery County in 1988 for this use. It is between 60 and 100 ft wide for the 3.3 miles between downtown Bethesda and North Silver Spring where it connects with the CSX right of way; 26' of this will be required for two tracks, therefore leaving a minimum of 34' for the trail and buffering. If the Purple Line is constructed in grass tracks, as proposed by MTA, the park-like ambience will be preserved with the joint-use project.

MTA's projected travel time for the Bethesda-Silver Spring segment of the Purple Line is only 9 minutes which includes time for stops at several stations along the way. This quick trip, combined with a direct connection to metrorail at the Bethesda and Silver Spring Metrorail stations will ensure that the line is well utilized by residents along both legs of the Red Line.

For Capital Crescent Trail supporters, the Purple Line offers a mechanism for dealing with CSX railways on the difficult right-of-way issues for the final one mile stretch from North Silver Spring to the new Silver Spring multimodal transit center. "CSX owns a segment of right of way critical for completing the trail, and CSX will not negotiate for a trail alone" stated long-time trail advocate and Purple Line Now! Board member Wayne Phyillaier.

PLN board members recently met with MDOT Secretary John Porcari who urged the group to work on obtaining funding for some trail enhancements, and PLN will work with trail advocates such as the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) and the Montgomery County Council to try to accelerate completion of the trail.

"Silver Spring residents have waited far too long for access to the Capital Crescent Trail. It is now clear that we can move forward on improvements to some sections of the trail while preliminary engineering of the transit/trail project is being completed, and we will do our part to accelerate that process" declared Webb Smedley, former President of the Woodside Civic Association which abuts the propose routing of the biker trail in Silver Spring and has supported the join use project for nearly 20 years. "It is very simple: we need the transit connection, and we also need better off-road trails; the trail will never be completed without the transitway, so this project is a win-win".

More information on the trail and transit project.