If you’re gonna build a Purple Line light-rail route, make it a good one, a manager for Metro’s rail works recommended.
“There are two types of light rail: the traditional and the trams,” Dave Kubicek, Metro’s assistant general manager for rail operations, explained to the Action Committee for Transit advocacy group in May.
If the proposed mass-transit line is to travel from Bethesda through downtown Silver Spring to New Carrollton at 60 miles per hour, then go with the traditional Metro car, Kubicek said.
Those cars run about 75 feet long and 10 feet wide, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The cars can glide at a maximum 59 miles per hour, though they usually run at an average 33 miles per hour in the Metro system.
However, if Maryland’s transit administration has no intentions of pushing the Purple Line past 45 miles per hour, then tram cars would work well, Kubicek said. “They have a modular design, … and with some trams, there is 210 feet of continuous walk-through,” he said.
Kubicek suggested placing doors on only one side of the tram car to allow for more seats. Resilient wheels would keep noise to a minimum, he added.
A drawback to trams is their overhead system of wires, which provide power and can ice over in the winter, Kubicek explained. By contrast, Metro trains are powered through a high-voltage third rail with heaters. If a tram model is chosen, its power lines should lean toward composite products, Kubicek recommended.
The state is weighing two travel modes for the Purple Line: a light-rail line resembling trams in transit administration illustrations, and bus rapid transit. A Metro-type train is not under consideration.
However, Kubicek said trams and traditional train modes could work in a single transit system. “We had interfaces that worked very well,” he said of his experience working with the transit system in Los Angeles.
An estimated 68,000 daily trips could be made on the Purple Line, The Washington Post reports. Compare that with about 260,000 daily trips on the Red Line.
Lead photo: A light-rail car rolls through Toronto, Ont. Courtesy of Flickr user St-Even.
Images of tram cars courtesy of Alstom Transport.
August 21, 2008
4 Comments at "Metro manager: If I had a Purple Line …"
Mr. Kubicek pointed out that a light rail system can be well integrated with both existing rail and bus lines to provide for seamless transfers from one to another at the many crossover points. In Silver Spring, transferees will go from one level to another to switch modes without going out into the rain as is now the case if, for example, a Red Line rider transfers to one of the east-west buses.
68,000 riders is huge in comparison with other proposed “new starts” — too many riders for a bus rapid transit line. It is time to move forward with a light rail purple line.
Editor’s note: This comment was edited for content. — JD (Jun 6, 2008)
When engineers described the new transit center at an evening event several years ago, it sounded as though it would all be covered — no going out into the rain to catch a bus. It sounded like the Bethesda station is now; all the bus activity is under a building. Furthermore, there would be electronic signs telling which buses were heading for which bays — sorta like the trains at Union Station.
The newer Metrobuses ride low and announce the stops. I don’t see how Bus Rapid Transit or a rail would be an improvement. Rail does excite developers, however, and bring the spectre of rezoning, redevelopment, removal of existing housing and residents.
Improving the regular bus/taxi/carpool/shared car/telecommuting systems would make travel easier while preserving communities.
Editor’s note: This comment has been deleted. — JD (Jun 24, 2008)
I’d like to see light rail that went to Burtonsville- down the center of 29-
Holler back.