Reply to Bethesda Row after the Purple Line Opens?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][twitter][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was looking at the Google Map someone made of the Purple Line route. It looks like it will really benefit Univ of Md with three stops and the connection to Metro. I think the Purple Line will raise the profile of the school among prospective applicants (especially those from out of state who would marvel at the novelty of the thing). That’s what happened when the Portland Streetcar famously built the line through the plaza of Portland State University 25 years ago.

Funny how UMD initially fought the Purple Line and tried to block it, like Duke University did with their proposed light rail. [/quote]

UMD is definitely going to be boosted by the PL. The main immediate benefit will be a more regular connection from the metro station than the current shuttles. But also, UMD is expanding into the Discovery Disctrict, and there's two stops there. Students, faculty, and staff will have free rides in the 5 stops around UMD, so I expect those to be heavily used (that portion will also be the slowest part of the PL due to all the students crossing the tracks, hopefully they will be safe).

And I didn't even mention the increased ease to go to, or commute from, SS and Bethesday. I fully expect the PL will become a critical part of the regional infrastructure a few short years after opening.[/quote]
Commuting from Bethesda will take one hour on the Purple Line, station to station. That will not be a favored option by anyone who cares about their time.[/quote]

Bethesda to the middle of UMD campus will be [url=https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Flo85z8r14ogb1.png]35 min station to station[/url].[/quote]

Correction, 35 min to the edge of campus on Adelphi Rd, 39 to the middle of campus.[/quote]
And how much time to get to Bethesda station from home? From a lot of Bethesda you can do that same trip from your house in 30 minutes.

If your point is that someone will live in an apartment in downtown Bethesda, anyone that can afford that rent values their time and no one that values their time would waste it pointlessly on the Purple Line. [/quote]

The people who livei n apartments in downtown Bethesda are not the primary targeted demographics for the purple line.  The purple line will be primarily for people who live in PG County, Takoma Park, Silver Spring, White Oak who have to travel to work over in the Bethesda area.  People that can't afford to live in an apartment in downtown Bethesda, but who have to work in Montgomery County.  These are people who have spent hours on busses or on the Metro to go down into the city and back out the other way, or people who have to negotiate with a family member for use of a shared car.    Going the other way, it is for people who live in Montgomery county, but are going to school at UMD.  This will get a ton of cars off of the overly congested Beltway and East-West Highway and get those roads less crowded for those who will still commute by car.[/quote]

What are these jobs you speak of? Bethesda has attracted one major employer in the past two decades and that employer is having trouble filling its office. More recently, landlords have torn down office buildings to put up housing for people who commute to DC. The number of commuters at UMCP has dropped by about half in the past two decades and a lot of those still come from north of campus, not east or west.

The Purple Line is solving problems from 20 or 30 years ago. How many years will it take to break even under even the most favorable benefit calculations? The money would have been better spent creating a better link with NoVa and getting Walter Reed and NIH commuters off of 355.
[/quote]

To be honest, “breaking even” or “turning a profit” is never the goal of public transit projects or agencies. It’s always a money losing proposition, whatever the project.

I do wonder if the brand new Marriott hq draws a large number of workers every day. Just curious.

While I think a Bethesda - Tysons Coner link has a lot of value, the states and Metro are instead focusing on the Bloop idea which will connect National Harbor Gaylord w Old Town Alexandria via a new blue line. [/quote]

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