MTA Purple Line Bethesda - New Carrollton Light Rail

[strench707]

Okay but on the Purple Line will any parts be single tracked? I remember something about the environmentalists pushing for single track on the part that follows the trail to ensure more shadiness due to less tree removal.

I think that would be crippling on any light rail to single track it for that long.

Any insight?

Davis

[frikentrainnerd]

Dose anyone know where thay will keep the cars?

[Sand Box John]

"strench707"
Okay but on the Purple Line will any parts be single tracked? I remember something about the environmentalists pushing for single track on the part that follows the trail to ensure more shadiness due to less tree removal.

I think that would be crippling on any light rail to single track it for that long.

The most resent documents that I have seen show the full length of the Purple Line being 2 track.

Local Preferred Alternative Purple Line Engineering Drawings

"frikentrainnerd"
Dose anyone know where thay will keep the cars?

The cars are presently being stored and exercised at Greenbelt Yard.

Anacostia light rail project
DC Streetcars On Display 05 08 2010

[strench707]

I looked at those charts and maybe its a drawing error but it goes down to one track in the middle of University Boulevard for like a 1/4 of a block then goes back out to two.

I hope that's just a drawing error.

Also, it seems it will do a lot of street-running. Will it take priority over traffic, or will it get stuck at red lights?

Davis

[frikentrainnerd]

What dose it mean to be "excersised" (forgive me if thats spelled wrong... Please.

[chucksc]

POed or jacked up! Agitated or Upset!

[frikentrainnerd]

I guess thats one way of puting it.
And wow! thats the first time any of my threads went to the next page!
I feel powerfull

[Sand Box John]

"strench707"
I looked at those charts and maybe its a drawing error but it goes down to one track in the middle of University Boulevard for like a 1/4 of a block then goes back out to two.

I hope that's just a drawing error.

No error in the drawing. You are miss reading them, the darker lines represent the center line of each track. The finer lines are the perimeter of the easement.

Also, it seems it will do a lot of street-running. Will it take priority over traffic, or will it get stuck at red lights?

Haven't read the DEIS documents so I don't know if signal priority preemption is part of the plan.

"frikentrainnerd"
What dose it mean to be "exercised" (forgive me if thats spelled wrong... Please.

The correct spelling should be exercised

The spell checker in MS Word 7.0 changed the spelling I retrieved from dictionary.reference.com.

[frikentrainnerd]

Uh i dont mean to bumm down your confidence is dictionarys but their both spelled the same way. I really dont know.... maby its finaly time to start cleaning my glasses for the first time in...a while

[ThirdRail7]

All this time, I thought the proposed line was a metro addition. I just realized it was a light rail project. Silly me!


My ignorance aside, here is an update on funding:

Maryland pledges (limited) Purple Line funds

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/pas ... funds.html

Please allow a brief "fair use' quote.

Gov. Martin O'Malley pledged $280 million from the state's gas tax hike for the project last week, but Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown followed by saying the Purple Line likely would require some form of private-public partnership. Previous planning had envisioned federal funding providing roughly 50% of funding, with the state and possibly local sources matching that amount.

The $2.15 billion, 16-mile Purple Line would span the Maryland's Washington, D.C. suburbs in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, running from New Carrolton to Bethesda and intersecting with Washington's Metrorail system in four places, in essence forming a circumferential route for Metrorail users as well as intrasuburban rail options.

Maryland Transit Administration officials recently offered a target completion date of 2020 for the Purple Line, five years later than some earlier projections.

[afiggatt]

All this time, I thought the proposed line was a metro addition. I just realized it was a light rail project. Silly me!

The fight back during the Ehrlich administration, as I recall it, was between light rail and BRT, with the Ehrlich crowd widely suspected of intending to further incrementally trim the line to a sort of BRT to just a bus line. The chosen alternative is discussed as "medium" level light rail, but I consider it to be towards the higher end of the LRT "spectrum" (from stuck in the street to fully separate ROW). The Purple Line will run mostly in a dedicated ROW with some elevated track and one tunnel, with a fair level of grade separation, except at a few intersections. It wil be entirely grade seperated between Silver Spring and Bethesda which will result in a quick trip time between the two stops.

For the route the line takes, light rail is appropriate. It won't be carrying huge peak rush hour crowds to the city business core. It will instead be taking students to/from UMD, people who live close to the stations to connect to the Metro, other stops on the line for work, shop, play. The traffic patterns on the Purple Line could be less peaky than the Metro and more evenly distributed across the weekday and weekends. Students heading to UMD for classes, lab work, and parties are not going to be stuck in the 8 to 5 weekday job commuter pattern.

One of the most interesting features of the Purple Line is that it will connect to the DC Metro at no less than at 4 locations, all providing lines leading into the city core. Will really extend the coverage of and routes through the DC Metro system with a bunch of new places people can get to entirely on rail transit. Easy to come up with ideas for extensions to the Purple Line and other light rail lines around the periphery of the DC Metro system that provide rail transit connections to a bunch of places in MD and ("inner") northern VA.

The Purple Line website has lots of material for those interested in checking out the latest public presentations, maps. etc.

[Sand Box John]

"ThirdRail7"
All this time, I thought the proposed line was a metro addition. I just realized it was a light rail project. Silly me!

The Purple Line evolved out of the Capital Beltway Corridor Transportation Study from 2000. The study was sponsored by WMATA and the Maryland SHA and MTA.

There were 5 alternatives proposed:

• Transportation System Management / Transportation Demand Management; Interchange reconfiguration, ramp metering, enhanced parallel roadway network, and enhanced traveler information.
• High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes; Concurrent Flow or Barrier Separated
• High Occupancy Toll Lanes, something similar to the Capitol Beltway Express Lanes in Virginia
• Heavy Rail Transit
• Light Rail Transit

The were 3 alignment options for each:



As afiggatt mentioned Bus Rapid Transit entered the option mix during Ehrlich administration.

The equivalent study on the Virginia side as I recall did not have a transit option.

[Greg Moore]

Correct a misconception of mine, but in the original (like 1960s) planning wasn't there some sort of "circle" route mentioned (that the Purple line is sort of doing a portion of?)

[Sand Box John]

"Greg Moore"

Correct a misconception of mine, but in the original (like 1960s) planning wasn't there some sort of "circle" route mentioned (that the Purple line is sort of doing a portion of?)

The only thing that was circumferential in the various transportation plans from the late 1950s and early 1960s was the Capitol Beltway. All of the transportation plans that included rail in various forms were radial.


1959 Highway Plan


1962 Highway Plan


1964 Combined Commuter Rail, Rapid Rail Transit, Express Bus and Highway Plan

The above are from Douglas A. Willinger Trip Within The Beltway A Crafted Controversy- the Scuttling of JFK's B&O North Central Freeway blog post.

There are other maps in the WMATA 09 1975 FEIS (112 MB PDF file)

[afiggatt]

The only thing that was circumferential in the various transportation plans from the late 1950s and early 1960s was the Capitol Beltway. All of the transportation plans that included rail in various forms were radial.

1959 Highway Plan

The 1959 Highway plan would have carved up DC like a turkey. The later Inner Beltway plan was hardly any better. Thanks for the link.

In the late 1960s, circumferential heavy or light rail lines would have made little sense. The Beltway was new and the major population and job centers were still in or close to DC, well inside the Beltway. Now that the Beltway gets overloaded at rush hour, time for light rail lines to add transit options. Or pass time, because the Purple Line should have started construction 10 years ago.