Killing the Purple Line is the prudent economic decision - despite billions spent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The is a complete waste of money and it will bankrupt MD. Virginia is not not stupid enough to subsidize this mistake. We will not contribute extra to cover the fiscal shortfall from Marylands irresponsible financial decisions. There is no political will to bail out MD here, so good luck everyone else.

Ummm Virginia just spent even more more money extending Metrorail out to Dulles and Alexandria just spent another $450 million on an infill Metro station.

Virginia spent money on extending Metrorail to connect quickly growing job centers to transit. They’ll easily get a return on the investment. What quickly growing job centers is the Purple Line connecting?

There are many lower income residents of PG County that work in Montgomery COunty where they cannot afford to live. You will have store clerks, home and office cleaners, barristas, fast food employees, gas station attendants and many other hourly employees who cannot afford to live in Montgomery County, now able to live in less expensive areas and commute to work.

You will also have employees and students at UMD, National Archives, FDA, NASA, New Carrolton Federal Building (mostly Treasury employees), Dept of Agriculture commuting Eastbound.

Right now, to travel from one county to the other on public transit, the have to take very time consuming busses (and many bus routes have been cut in the last 3 years) or take Metro downtown. You need green/yellow line in PG county and Red line in Montgomery County. Either way public transit currently takes 2-3 times longer than it will take via Purple line when the route is complete. Also, the Purple line will reduce congestion on the Beltway during typical rush hours as there will be some that take the Purple line instead of having to drive.

How many of those commuters have jobs on the purple line? Do you think the purple line will lead to more gas station jobs? Do you think more gas station jobs is what we really need to jumpstart the economy? How many people per hour will ditch the beltway at rush hour and will that reduce congestion by a meaningful amount?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The is a complete waste of money and it will bankrupt MD. Virginia is not not stupid enough to subsidize this mistake. We will not contribute extra to cover the fiscal shortfall from Marylands irresponsible financial decisions. There is no political will to bail out MD here, so good luck everyone else.

Ummm Virginia just spent even more more money extending Metrorail out to Dulles and Alexandria just spent another $450 million on an infill Metro station.

Virginia spent money on extending Metrorail to connect quickly growing job centers to transit. They’ll easily get a return on the investment. What quickly growing job centers is the Purple Line connecting?

Really - do you not live in lower Montgomery County?

Bethesda in fact is rapidly densifying as is Silver Spring and College Park is also a significant economic hub in the state and all 3 are drowning in cars and congestion even post Covid.

What is laughable is that elsewhere in this thread someone complained about Chevy Chase Land company making money - well guess what - Chevy Chase land company building lots of new multi-unit housing generates lots of tax revenue for the county and state and since folks in multi-unit buildings tend to have few kids they pay more in taxes than they receive in services.

So yeah Maryland and MoCo are in fact getting a return on this investment - please go check out what has already been built adjacent to the PL in Bethesda and at Chevy Chase Lake.

How much commercial space are Bethesda and Silver Spring planning to add because of the Purple Line? How many jobs will be added as a result?

[Anonymous]

OP you don’t have basic facts. The Purple Line isn’t a Wmata project. It’s an MDOT project.

Wmata doesn’t have any light rail.

You shouldn’t be posting on a subject you’re too lazy to do a basic google search on.

[Anonymous]

It shouldn’t take like 1 hour of redline transit to go from silver spring to Rockville. The purple line will dramatically reduce that time by a LOT. For example, there are bakeries and Asian restaurants we like to frequent in Rockville. We have to drive rather than take public transportation simply because the redline from takoma park would take forever since it has to go all the way down to center city DC and out before it comes back out to the western part of moco. The purple like will allow us to cut over very quickly to Bethesda’s station so we can go up to Rockville. It makes going to RTC by public transportation muc, much more viable for us and we will likely no longer drive once it is available. Absolutely fantastic since we will no longer need to drive on that hellscape known as Rockville pike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Bethesda to UMD? We want it. Thousands of college students, university profs and employees are eagerly waiting for it.

Don't be stupid.

oh yes, all those UMD students commuting from downtown Bethesda..

Driving, even with traffic, will be faster

No it won't be - the Purple Line which will have it's own right of way for most of the route will take 9 minutes to go from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

There is no way even at 2AM to cover that distance today in 9 minutes.

Also left out of this discussion is that the project will extend the Capital Crescent Trail (the most used multi-use trail in the country) from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

.

All of which will bring more crime to Bethesda.

So you think someone will take a streetcar to bethesda, commit a crime, and then....wait for a streetcar to make off with their bounty?

That is a heck of a racial profiling ask there.

The purple line is a subway not a streetcar.

It’s not a subway it’s light rail. Which is a lot closer to a street car than a subway. The purple line only has 1 short tunnel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Bethesda to UMD? We want it. Thousands of college students, university profs and employees are eagerly waiting for it.

Don't be stupid.

oh yes, all those UMD students commuting from downtown Bethesda..

Driving, even with traffic, will be faster

No it won't be - the Purple Line which will have it's own right of way for most of the route will take 9 minutes to go from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

There is no way even at 2AM to cover that distance today in 9 minutes.

Also left out of this discussion is that the project will extend the Capital Crescent Trail (the most used multi-use trail in the country) from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

.

All of which will bring more crime to Bethesda.

So you think someone will take a streetcar to bethesda, commit a crime, and then....wait for a streetcar to make off with their bounty?

That is a heck of a racial profiling ask there.

It happens more than you think along the Metro. Criminals have even rolled shopping carts full on stolen goods to the Metro elevator from the DC Target on Connecticut Ave.

Buddy, I’m gonna blow your mind: criminals can drive cars too! In fact, you may not have paid attention, but car jacking has been a thing in the District in the last 3 years. Public transportation is not the only way people can commit crimes

Would more frequent capital punishment sentences be helpful here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public services are not businesses, they are not meant to make a profit

Exactly. They are jobs programs used to employ those that would be unable to find work in the corporate world due to their incompetence.

???


The are transportation programs to facilitate getting people from one place to another in a clean and cheap manner.

Think if all the cars that won't be using the beltway to get from Prince George's County to Bethesda/NIH etc. and vice versa.

$25 per trip is not cheap and a bus only transit system would be much less expensive than this metro boondoggle.

Are you posting from 2004?

The whole thread is silly, because notwithstanding the OP's opinion, the governor is not about to kill the Purple Line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It shouldn’t take like 1 hour of redline transit to go from silver spring to Rockville. The purple line will dramatically reduce that time by a LOT. For example, there are bakeries and Asian restaurants we like to frequent in Rockville. We have to drive rather than take public transportation simply because the redline from takoma park would take forever since it has to go all the way down to center city DC and out before it comes back out to the western part of moco. The purple like will allow us to cut over very quickly to Bethesda’s station so we can go up to Rockville. It makes going to RTC by public transportation muc, much more viable for us and we will likely no longer drive once it is available. Absolutely fantastic since we will no longer need to drive on that hellscape known as Rockville pike.

I would suggest looking at Silver Spring/Wheaton instead.

However, I fully agree with you that connecting the two ends of the red line is not only important but is beneficial to the entire region in the long term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The purple line isn’t Metro.

It's considered polite to use more than 5 words when utterly destroying someone's ego and ignorant worldview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The is a complete waste of money and it will bankrupt MD. Virginia is not not stupid enough to subsidize this mistake. We will not contribute extra to cover the fiscal shortfall from Marylands irresponsible financial decisions. There is no political will to bail out MD here, so good luck everyone else.

Ummm Virginia just spent even more more money extending Metrorail out to Dulles and Alexandria just spent another $450 million on an infill Metro station.

Virginia spent money on extending Metrorail to connect quickly growing job centers to transit. They’ll easily get a return on the investment. What quickly growing job centers is the Purple Line connecting?

There are many lower income residents of PG County that work in Montgomery COunty where they cannot afford to live. You will have store clerks, home and office cleaners, barristas, fast food employees, gas station attendants and many other hourly employees who cannot afford to live in Montgomery County, now able to live in less expensive areas and commute to work.

You will also have employees and students at UMD, National Archives, FDA, NASA, New Carrolton Federal Building (mostly Treasury employees), Dept of Agriculture commuting Eastbound.

Right now, to travel from one county to the other on public transit, the have to take very time consuming busses (and many bus routes have been cut in the last 3 years) or take Metro downtown. You need green/yellow line in PG county and Red line in Montgomery County. Either way public transit currently takes 2-3 times longer than it will take via Purple line when the route is complete. Also, the Purple line will reduce congestion on the Beltway during typical rush hours as there will be some that take the Purple line instead of having to drive.

The economics of the purple line only seem to make sense to wealthy white people in Bethesda. You seem to think it’s some of transportation bargain for $12.50 each way from one end to the other. Clearly y’all have never been poor. I’ve been poor, and I understand how poor people think. Lower income residents of PG aren’t going to spend $125/wk getting from New Carrollton to Bethesda for jobs. For the same $500 a month they’ll buy a beater car and a tank of gas once a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The is a complete waste of money and it will bankrupt MD. Virginia is not not stupid enough to subsidize this mistake. We will not contribute extra to cover the fiscal shortfall from Marylands irresponsible financial decisions. There is no political will to bail out MD here, so good luck everyone else.

Ummm Virginia just spent even more more money extending Metrorail out to Dulles and Alexandria just spent another $450 million on an infill Metro station.

Virginia spent money on extending Metrorail to connect quickly growing job centers to transit. They’ll easily get a return on the investment. What quickly growing job centers is the Purple Line connecting?

There are many lower income residents of PG County that work in Montgomery COunty where they cannot afford to live. You will have store clerks, home and office cleaners, barristas, fast food employees, gas station attendants and many other hourly employees who cannot afford to live in Montgomery County, now able to live in less expensive areas and commute to work.

You will also have employees and students at UMD, National Archives, FDA, NASA, New Carrolton Federal Building (mostly Treasury employees), Dept of Agriculture commuting Eastbound.

Right now, to travel from one county to the other on public transit, the have to take very time consuming busses (and many bus routes have been cut in the last 3 years) or take Metro downtown. You need green/yellow line in PG county and Red line in Montgomery County. Either way public transit currently takes 2-3 times longer than it will take via Purple line when the route is complete. Also, the Purple line will reduce congestion on the Beltway during typical rush hours as there will be some that take the Purple line instead of having to drive.

The economics of the purple line only seem to make sense to wealthy white people in Bethesda. You seem to think it’s some of transportation bargain for $12.50 each way from one end to the other. Clearly y’all have never been poor. I’ve been poor, and I understand how poor people think. Lower income residents of PG aren’t going to spend $125/wk getting from New Carrollton to Bethesda for jobs. For the same $500 a month they’ll buy a beater car and a tank of gas once a week.

I don't think fares have been finalized. Also most people will not ride it from one end to the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Bethesda to UMD? We want it. Thousands of college students, university profs and employees are eagerly waiting for it.

Don't be stupid.

oh yes, all those UMD students commuting from downtown Bethesda..

Driving, even with traffic, will be faster

No it won't be - the Purple Line which will have it's own right of way for most of the route will take 9 minutes to go from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

There is no way even at 2AM to cover that distance today in 9 minutes.

Also left out of this discussion is that the project will extend the Capital Crescent Trail (the most used multi-use trail in the country) from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

You won't be taking metro at 2AM either. And while it might take 9 minutes, the trains don't run every minute.

Expected headways are 7.5 minutes during rush hour and 10 minutes the rest of the time.

Can you currently get from Bethesda to Silver Spring in 20 minutes using any other form or transportation at any time of day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Bethesda to UMD? We want it. Thousands of college students, university profs and employees are eagerly waiting for it.

Don't be stupid.

oh yes, all those UMD students commuting from downtown Bethesda..

Driving, even with traffic, will be faster

No it won't be - the Purple Line which will have it's own right of way for most of the route will take 9 minutes to go from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

There is no way even at 2AM to cover that distance today in 9 minutes.

Also left out of this discussion is that the project will extend the Capital Crescent Trail (the most used multi-use trail in the country) from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

You won't be taking metro at 2AM either. And while it might take 9 minutes, the trains don't run every minute.

Expected headways are 7.5 minutes during rush hour and 10 minutes the rest of the time.

Can you currently get from Bethesda to Silver Spring in 20 minutes using any other form or transportation at any time of day?

Yes. East-West Highway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you don’t have basic facts. The Purple Line isn’t a Wmata project. It’s an MDOT project.

Wmata doesn’t have any light rail.

You shouldn’t be posting on a subject you’re too lazy to do a basic google search on.

If WMATA has no light rail, who runs that total waste of money light rail on H St NE in the heart of DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you kidding? Bethesda to UMD? We want it. Thousands of college students, university profs and employees are eagerly waiting for it.

Don't be stupid.

More like maids and construction workers

Don’t be naive

This shouldn't have to be said: Cleaners and construction workers are equal to the professors and college students. In practical every day terms, we/they help society run and are relied upon by everyone else. If you live in a home or enter a building, thank a construction worker. There are more cleaners/ construction workers than professors - people needing the metro, no matter their jobs, is a reason to have the metro. Public goods are for the public, not just the narrow groups one deems worthy.