Takoma Park resident vows to vote against all local public officials this fall, because of the failure of the Purple Line light rail, but the failure is because of the Governor, who is termed out

Rick Scheer of Takoma Park writes in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post:

Those of us who live, work or shop in east Silver Spring have mostly concluded that the Purple Line project is something between a major disappointment and a total fiasco. Based on the interviews in the May 8 Metro article “Maryland Purple Line construction will resume in August, officials say,” I’m now leaning toward fiasco. 

We’ve been suffering from torn-up streets, unfinished tunnels and bridges, and other public eyesores for more than two years, and ongoing work to move utility lines for the project routinely causes local traffic snarls. 

Officials said that with the new contract, work would commence this spring. I learned from the article that they really meant late summer. Even that work is focused on the Purple Line’s end points in Bethesda and Prince George’s County. The road-widening efforts affecting east Silver Spring are not scheduled until spring 2023, a full year from now, assuming the effort ixxxs on schedule (ha!). And this construction will be wildly disruptive, so say the new project managers. 

In all local elections this November, for me the Purple Line will be the primary ballot consideration. I plan to hold all local officials accountable for this fiasco, and not a single incumbent will get my vote.

But the Purple Line fiasco is all a result of the Executive Branch of the State Government, specifically the Republican Governor, Larry Hogan, and his directives to the State Department of Transportation.  

Scheer will be punishing the wrong people. It's all Hogan's fault. 

No local officials at the city and county level, and even the State Senators and Representatives have anything to do with it.

First Hogan delayed the Purple Line with another review when he first got elected.  This led to delays with the Federal Transit Administration approving funding. 

Then the Republican emphasis on pushing the selection of a public private partnership to do the project, including providing some financing:

-- "Purple Line moves forward," 2017
-- "A Purple Line update: the downside of "Public Private Partnerships" -- they are contracts, not partnerships," 2017
-- "Public-private "partnerships" aren't partnerships but contractual relationships," 2017 

The partnership picking a less suitable construction group. 

The state being unwilling to renegotiate certain elements of the contract when costs rose and then the construction company quitting as a result.  And needing to find a new construction group.

-- "Sometimes you have to wonder if transit/transit projects are being deliberately screwed up to make transit expansion almost impossible," 2022

The various lawsuits etc. 

But Republican Governor Hogan is termed out.  He can't be punished at the ballot box.  He's the one who needs to be held accountable, but there is no accountability.

I understand Scheer's frustration.  I first read about the concept of the Purple Line in a cover story in the Washington City Paper in December 1987.  It will be almost 40 years before the first segment, from Bethesda to New Carrollton, comes to fruition.

No planning is underway for any of the other segments.  At this rate it will take more than 100 years to bring it to fruition.