S/O purple line?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact the Bethesda and Silver spring are about a 15 min drive but I have to go thru DC to get there by metro... that is why we need the purple line.

You could just get the bus...

No you can't "just get the bus" b/c they don't run very many East-West routes. They should.

Also for you asses that talk about it cutting through the country club--it wouldn't. It would become what is now the Capital Crescent Trail!

Save the Trail, for God sake!

The trail is only there because the state bought the rail line from CSX with plans to use it as rail in the future, but built the trail first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No you can't "just get the bus" b/c they don't run very many East-West routes. They should.

Also for you asses that talk about it cutting through the country club--it wouldn't. It would become what is now the Capital Crescent Trail!

Save the Trail, for God sake!

Wrong, it will cut through the country club. Check out the maps, in particular the two titled Columbia Country Club: http://www.purplelinemd.com/en/maps-graphics You can even see where they have a golf cart underpass planned!

The Capital Crescent Trail already goes through the country club, with a golf cart underpass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This entire project is a joke, Who is going to ride it? Seriously, who do youthink is on either end of it that needs to go to the other end?

Yet the state put in the gas tax to get some of the money but not enough. The East West Highway traffic is not going to come to an end once this is complete.

How did the beltway traffic decrease after the ICC?

Waste of money, waste of time.

I also found it funny hwo Omally, propped up the Lt. Gov infront who happens to be running and nobody knows who he is.

The State press release highlighted his name everytime it was mentioned.

What a joke

+1 total joke, but happening anyway...

[Anonymous]

WMATA doesn't find it worthwhile to run buses on the Jones Bridge Road just north of the proposed Purple Line; not enough people ride them. It's a boondoggle supported by the very wealthy Chevy Chase Lake development company.

Montgomery County doesn't need to start a trails-to-rails movement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WMATA doesn't find it worthwhile to run buses on the Jones Bridge Road just north of the proposed Purple Line; not enough people ride them. It's a boondoggle supported by the very wealthy Chevy Chase Lake development company.

Montgomery County doesn't need to start a trails-to-rails movement.

This is the dumbest argument in the entire thread. The J buses run up and down East-West highway, although you've probably never been on a bus in your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WMATA doesn't find it worthwhile to run buses on the Jones Bridge Road just north of the proposed Purple Line; not enough people ride them. It's a boondoggle supported by the very wealthy Chevy Chase Lake development company.

Montgomery County doesn't need to start a trails-to-rails movement.

This is the dumbest argument in the entire thread. The J buses run up and down East-West highway, although you've probably never been on a bus in your life.

I don't really understand PP's argument either, but there was an alternative to Purple Line light rail proposed that involved "high-speed" buses along Jones Bridge Road (regular buses run along there already) as a link from Silver Spring to the Medical Center Metro station as a way to avoid sacrificing the trail that is along the rail line that was purchase for the purpose of mass transit. The bus idea was rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is the dumbest argument in the entire thread. The J buses run up and down East-West highway, although you've probably never been on a bus in your life.

No, I have often ridden the J2 bus along the East-West Highway, often enough to notice first, that the buses aren't full, and second, that few passengers ride the entire distance from the Silver Spring metro station to Bethesda. Buses run along the Jones Bridge Road only during rush hour. If the need for public transportation were real it would be economically rational for more of them to use Jones Bridge Road, which slows only at Connecticut Avenue.

That's about as simple as I can make it; do you understand what I am saying now?

[Anonymous]

Who will ride it? There are thousands of employees of various places such as the New Carrollton Federal Building (IRS), UMD, National Archives, FDA College Park all of which are accessible from one of the proposed stops. And many of them live in Montgomery County and would be able to commute far more easily without a car and the beltway to their jobs. There are many people in PG county near those stops who commute to places such as NIH or Walter Reed who would use it. The proposed line will connect a lot of institutions that support many who need alternative means of commuting. The Purple Line will serve them. And they need it far more than some upper class residents need a golf course or a walking trail.

[Anonymous]

We don't need to sacrifice our trails to support commuters. A far more modest investment would support improved bus service without the massive economic and environmental disadvantages of building a rail line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't need to sacrifice our trails to support commuters. A far more modest investment would support improved bus service without the massive economic and environmental disadvantages of building a rail line.

Ah, one of the country club clique. The bus line will not be nearly as time efficient and as such, far fewer people will use it and it will not reduce the congestion on the beltway as much as the light rail line. The bus line will not achieve most of the desired goals as well as the light rail line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
21:32 uses the same argument that Georgetowners made to keep Metro out of Georgetown. What a mistake that was, though they didn't realize it then.

Actually there was never going to be a Metro station in Georgetown. Because of the river, a station at Wisconsin and M would have had to have been very deep, or there would have had to have been a bridge, which the planners didn't want. Also they would have had to tunnel under private property. And also Metro was supposed to connect suburban commuters with office jobs downtown.

However, if there had been a Metro station proposed for Georgetown, the Georgetowners surely would have opposed it (as Montgomery County people opposed stations in Montgomery County), on grounds that only rapists and muggers would use it.

(Credit to Zachary Schrag's book "The Great Society Subway" and http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/423/georgetown-never-blocked-metro-stop/ )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is the dumbest argument in the entire thread. The J buses run up and down East-West highway, although you've probably never been on a bus in your life.

No, I have often ridden the J2 bus along the East-West Highway, often enough to notice first, that the buses aren't full, and second, that few passengers ride the entire distance from the Silver Spring metro station to Bethesda. Buses run along the Jones Bridge Road only during rush hour. If the need for public transportation were real it would be economically rational for more of them to use Jones Bridge Road, which slows only at Connecticut Avenue.

That's about as simple as I can make it; do you understand what I am saying now?

Yes. You're saying that nobody with any choice in transportation takes the bus, because the bus is slow and inconvenient, and that this shows that

1. We don't need public transit.
2. If we did need public transit, then it should be more slow and inconvenient buses that nobody with any choice in transportation takes, because the buses are slow and inconvenient.

[Anonymous]

The bus option made no sense for a lot of reasons. And neither did running the route along Jones Bridge Rd which only runs from Bethesda to CCMD and is madly overcrowded already. The state bought the rail line for future transportation use, and it is the most direct and obvious connector between all points on the route. Are you really so concerned about your golf game or your weekend Lance Armstrong fantasies that you think these interests trump the obvious sense in using a rail line for light rail?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This entire project is a joke, Who is going to ride it? Seriously, who do youthink is on either end of it that needs to go to the other end?

Yet the state put in the gas tax to get some of the money but not enough. The East West Highway traffic is not going to come to an end once this is complete.

How did the beltway traffic decrease after the ICC?

Waste of money, waste of time.

I also found it funny hwo Omally, propped up the Lt. Gov infront who happens to be running and nobody knows who he is.

The State press release highlighted his name everytime it was mentioned.

What a joke

+1 total joke, but happening anyway...

It will never happen. Bethesda is full of lawyers that will block its construction for the foreseeable future.

[Anonymous]

I live near East West Highway and take the bus to Bethesda and Silver Spring a lot. I agree the service could be more frequent, but it is rarely crowded. I don't think shaving 5 minutes off the time between the two will do much to increase ridership, to be honest. I would be surprised if the purple line generates too many customers.

The trail has a lot of beautiful old trees and it will be sad to see them go, for an ill-conceived public transport link that is not needed and will make the cycle/walking path much less pleasant.