S/O purple line?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

You would be surprised if there are more riders on a light rail that runs every 5 or 10 minutes and gets to Silver Spring from Bethesda in 8.5 minutes than on a bus that runs every 20 minutes and gets to Silver Spring from Bethesda in 25 minutes (the J4 express during evening rush)?

I'll be surprised if there aren't.

As for the trail -- with the Purple Line, the trail will

1. extend all the way to Silver Spring.
2. connect with the Metropolitan Branch Trail that goes all the way to Union Station in DC.
3. be wider that it is now.
4. have grade-separated crossings of Connecticut Ave and Jones Bridge Rd.
5. have a direct off-road connection to the Rock Creek Trail.

"Save the trail" pretty much means "Save the trail for people in Chevy Chase".

[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.

aCtually it isn't this poster knows something. David Smith who was handed the Chevy Chase Land company from daddy, is a huge supporter of this. thier fmaiy use dto own most of the property from the beltwya well into Dc on Connecticut Ave. this is their crown jewel and Daivid is lining the pockets of those who make the decisions. Look who rebuilt the bridge along the trail, CCLC, funny how they builtit to suuport rail cars....

[Anonymous]

Here is something to consider. Bethesda is the moeny maker for the county. Look therough the minutes of all the council hearings about parking fees. In every meeting it is brought up that Bethesda is the cash register for the TMD's. Raise the rates there and funnel the money to the other areas.

Silver Spring will never be what people hoped it would be. They say it will come back, but it never was anything. In the 50+ years I have been here, it has always been an up and coming area. Anyone remember Rockville Mall? They thoguht it would work, this is a very expensive thought and the peopel who are on East West Highway in that traffic are peopel who are not going to put their kids on the purple line to go to practices and events after school.

[Anonymous]

I think the purple line will be a great thing. I live in the neighborhood it will cut through, and I'm all for it! (Though I have lots of neighbors with self-interested "save the trail" signs) We love the bike trail, but even more I believe in public transportation. We think people should focus on doing their best to see that there are more and better bike paths throughout the area, rather than fighting one public transportation line. If the purple line already existed, we would have considered living in Silver Spring instead of Bethesda (we work in Bethesda).

[Anonymous]

Yes, the Chevy Chase Land Company supports the Purple Line. The Purple Line is nonetheless a good idea.

And as for a supposed "trails-to-rails" movement -- no. The county's purpose in buying the Georgetown Branch was to put rails on it. The trail was not the purpose. The trail was an additional benefit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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/ )

PP here. Interesting. Does anyone know what came of this year's discussions of tunnels from Rosslyn and downtown?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opinions-are-local/post/bringing-metro-togeorgetown/2013/01/25/b3ace3d2-6725-11e2-93e1-475791032daf_blog.html

[Anonymous]

The cost of public transportation makes it less expensive to drive from Bethesda to Silver Spring and once this project is done, it will be a lot more expensive.

the original Metro prices were affordable, now it will cost you $4.45 without smarttrip to go from Bethesda to Gallery Place each way. $3.45 with smart trip Without parking or a bus to the metro. Tha tprice could increase by 50% if you take the bus there or a lot more if you have to park at metro.

With Smart Trip that is $34.50 per week or $1794 annually. It is only going to go up. My already paid for car costs about $20 a week in gas and my job pays for parking.

Doesn't make sense for me to take public transportation.

[Anonymous]

What about insurance and maintenance on the car? Then there are the externalities we all pay for, i.e. the pollution your car puts out. Put a nice carbon tax into the cost of gas, and you can pay the actual cost of your commute minus parking!

[Anonymous]

Can we put aside the question of whether everyone thinks it is a good idea for a moment and consider the question of whether O'Malley's announcement about private funding has any real significance? It seemed like a big deal to me. I don't have enough experience with big public works projects to understand whether this is just meant to keep everyone excited or if it has substantive significance. Does this announcement make it more likely that the Purple Line will become a reality? Does anyone have any non-biased insight into that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we put aside the question of whether everyone thinks it is a good idea for a moment and consider the question of whether O'Malley's announcement about private funding has any real significance? It seemed like a big deal to me. I don't have enough experience with big public works projects to understand whether this is just meant to keep everyone excited or if it has substantive significance. Does this announcement make it more likely that the Purple Line will become a reality? Does anyone have any non-biased insight into that?

The amount that we are being taxed to pay for it is a small amount of the total bill. You have a good point about keeping the momentum going while the project is debated for federal funds. Notice they are now looking into private funding as well. Look at the last two partially privately funded projects, the Greenway, has been sold and on the verge of going bankrupt a number of times and the HOT lanes that are not used at all.

Who is going to put their private money into these projects and not get a top dollar return? Sounds like a crap shoot to me. Also O'Malley really wants to run in 2016, if he isn;t going to be the nominee he will sette for being on the ticket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the Chevy Chase Land Company supports the Purple Line. The Purple Line is nonetheless a good idea.

And as for a supposed "trails-to-rails" movement -- no. The county's purpose in buying the Georgetown Branch was to put rails on it. The trail was not the purpose. The trail was an additional benefit.

Yes. Another neighborhood resident here who uses the trails daily but supports the project. The wonder of nice walking/biking trails is diminished if those of us who live in the adjacent neighborhoods are so hemmed in by traffic that it takes ages to get to schools, work, the grocery store. If the County and its residents want to develop every square inch of this area - and they do, not just the big developers like CC Land Co but also the McMansionization of every small older home in 20814 and 20815 - then there have to be reasonable improvements and expansions to public transportation to accommodate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

But the ridership between Bethesda and Silver Spring was never intended to be the ridership that supports the PL, it was an added convenient touted by the designers. The real ridership will be people from east going to UMD, NIH, Walter Reed and the people from the west going to UMD, IRS, CSC, National Archives, FDA, NASA contractors and many other businesses. There are tens of thousands of such employees who may end up taking advantage of this public transit option. Right now, many of them drive because the only option is to take Metro downtown to one of the busiest hubs during rush hour and transfer to go back out the other side which is incredibly time-consuming. So they sit in beltway traffic for the drive. If they have the option to take public transit that does not take them downtown and back out they might avoid the beltway. I work near one of the proposed Eastern stops and I know a number of folks who are looking forward to having this option.

[Anonymous]

Try riding that same route at 11:00 pm, buses are packed, restaurants are clsoig and all the workers are headed back to Silver Spring.

Nobody knwos what the purple line is for or how it will impact traffic, $2.2 billion dart hoping it sticks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nobody knwos what the purple line is for or how it will impact traffic, $2.2 billion dart hoping it sticks.

Of course nobody knows. The Purple Line hasn't been built yet! People have pretty good guesses, though:

http://www.purplelinemd.com/images/studies_reports/new_starts/travel_forecasts/documentation_of_methodologies.pdf

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why it woul dbe bad to have light rail going to UMD?