Purple Line: Please, God, Make It Happen

11:49 pm EST May 29th, 2008 | News | 9 Comments

Our subway system here is pretty good, but one of the problems is that if I want to go from my part of Maryland – Takoma Park/Silver Spring to somewhere like Bethesda, I have to go through Washington D.C. to do it. This makes no sense. By auto that’s about 15 minutes drive, but because the Red Line doesn’t go in a circle, it works out that way. The proposed purple line would solve that, and make a pretty good mass transit system better. This is one of those government things where I’m like do it already.

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9 Responses to “Purple Line: Please, God, Make It Happen”

  1. C.S.Strowbridge says:
    May 30, 2008 at 12:29 am

    Mass transit needs to be improved in the United States (and in Canada). There is literally no downside to this, except possibly the upfront costs. But even there, it would pay for itself eventually.

  2. Apikoros says:
    May 30, 2008 at 12:37 am

    Don’t be selfish, Mr. Willis. What the region needs is a rim to the hub-and-spoke subway system it has. I very much agree with you on a purple line, but every plan I have seen ends that line at the Woodie Wilson and Cabin John bridges. The line should be a complete circle! and run all the way around the beltway! Imagine what a boon this would be for those who live in Virginia and work at the Census Bureau. I rest my case.

    In addition, I’d like to touch on a third rail… literally. Over time, I believe our system should be rebuilt to include the third track to make express trains possible. This was originally one of the parts of the system but was cut in a ((false) bit of budgetry. The poor bastards who live in Vienna are now paying the price. I believe those in Springfield and the outer reaches of the red line will as well. We need a system sized to haul the whole of the commuter population.

  3. Pistol Pete says:
    May 30, 2008 at 7:07 am

    Or, you could always just hop on a bus. Like driving, this also only takes about 15 minutes.

    The Purple Line is a good idea, and I support it, but it would be somewhat wasteful to build it just for the (short) trip between SS & Bethesda.

  4. SaveFarris says:
    May 30, 2008 at 8:40 am

    Good Luck with the NIMBYs. They’re what kill you every time when it comes to these things.

  5. jim says:
    May 30, 2008 at 10:56 am

    The Purple Line is being built for development interests. It will not be fast like the Metro trains we know. It can’t go west from Bethesda (can’t circle the DC mtero area). It is being built where mass transit ALREADY EXISTS in Bethesda, SS, Takoma Park, College Park, New Carrolton. We need to build the Corridor Cities Transitway in northern MoCo where there is no mass transit and people must drive.

    Every politician who strongly support this boondoggle is either really stupid or in the developers back pocket(Chevy Chase Land Co. for one).

  6. Dr. Squid says:
    May 30, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    So where is it better to develop? Silver Spring or way past Germantown?

    Besides, you’ve got lines going out to freaking Martinsburg. Why not asking for more funding on that instead of complaining that someone closer to the district gets a cookie?

  7. Just John says:
    May 30, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Metro to Dulles!

  8. somejackass says:
    May 30, 2008 at 11:40 pm

    I think everyone agrees DC needs better mass transit, and the hub and spoke model has long since past usefulness. But this particular route, which stays exclusively in MD, doesn’t seem very useful.

    I’d be more interested in a line that either circles the whole of DC, like the proposed purple route extended to Rosslyn, then paralleling the blue line (but further out) to Alexandria. Have you tried to drive in VA recently? Horrid.

    An other option I could get behind would be a line that’s a bit closer in… I bet an stadium armory -> union station -> howard -> columbia heights -> cleveland park route would get even more riders. Heck, make the endpoints anacostia and georgetown, even.

    In other words, good idea, but why does maryland get to keep it all to itself? Share the love with the non-downtown bits of DC, and it’ll still save you suburban marylandites a lot of time, but also benefit folks in DC.

  9. Bruce says:
    May 31, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    1) The bus service is already quite slow through the corridor, particularly the MoCo side.

    2) It would replace a number of inefficient lines feeding into current metro stations and increasing speed.

    3) Three commuter rail lines, an Amtrak line and four subway spokes already sit along the proposed lines. It becomes possible for medium-distance commuters in the NE suburbs to ditch their commuting cars, or keep them only for a neighborhood jaunt to the commuter rail station, and work in the two biggest urban districts south of Baltimore in Maryland: Bethesda and Silver Spring.

    4) There’s nothing selfish about Maryland not wanting to build Virginia a rail system on Maryland’s dime. If Virginia wants a rail system, they can build it themselves and negotiate for a connector to Bethesda, with Maryland then picking up a proportionate share of that spur only. Central and southern Virginia live off the teat of Northern Virginia’s wealth and treat it shabbily; there’s a reason why traffic’s so much worse on the Virginia side. Instead of a sprawl inducing extension past Dulles, Virginia needs Metrorail or its equivalent just from Tysons through Falls Church and down Route 7 and over either to the Pentagon, the airport or King Street (the first of those would be the best.) The commute to Leesburg they can do by converting the WOD trail into commuter rail to Rosslyn or Crystal City to meet the other VRE; the roller bladers will have to cope. But count on Appalachian priorities in Richmond to kill it all.