ROCKVILLE — The full county council on Tuesday showed nothing but love for a light-rail Purple Line ride, but they’d like to check out one more thing: the possibility of running east- and westbound trains on a single track along some parts of the Capital Crescent Trail.
“One of the critical things about rapid transit is that it has to be reliable and predictable. You can’t have trains arriving late, and trains that stack up on one another,” council member Marc Elrich (D-At large) said to state reps. “But if [single tracking] saves money and doesn’t affect your ability to operate the line, then I hope you’ll look at it.”
Single tracking that Bethesda-to-New Carrollton ride could soften its impact through Chevy Chase, said council member Roger Berliner (D-District 1), who proposed the study. Most trees along the trail will meet the ax to make way for overhead electrical wires, admitted Mike Madden, who manages this project for the state.
But rolling two trains on one track has its drawbacks, Madden testified. Back in the day, Baltimore’s light-rail line ran on a single track through some routes, and that saved the state some money up front on construction, he said. But the system paid it back in “impacts and angst.”
“When you have only one track and have to do maintenance, you have to shut down that whole track,” he warned. Train operators also would need spot-on timing to prevent scheduling conflicts, he said.
Nonetheless, five of the council’s eight members said they wanted the state to look into it. Opposition came from Dem members George Leventhal, Duchy Trachtenberg and Valerie Ervin.
“In Chevy Chase, there may be a certain quality-of-life issues related to the trail, but in East Silver Spring, those quality-of-life issues are different,” Ervin, who reps the downtown area, told her colleagues. More than 60 percent of people living along Purple Line routes rent their cribs, and many are recent immigrants, she spelled out.
“A significant conversation has to take place on how to revitalize those neighborhoods on the [Purple Line's] eastern end,” Ervin read from a prepared statement. “Our developing communities deserve the same level of service as those developed communities.”
Leventhal worried that a single-track study would throw a red herring in the Purple Line’s path, and that placating concerns on one end of the system would only open cans of worms somewhere else. “We can’t micromanage this project,” he told his colleagues.
The one thing that all agreed on was further study of a tunnel beneath Wayne Avenue. According to Jonathan Jay, vice president of the Seven Oaks-Evanswood Citizens Association, a tunnel would allow the mass-transit project to bypass downtown ’s congested streets as it worms its way to Long Branch.
But project manager Madden warned that tunneling could create more havoc by widening the route’s 48-foot berth to 80 feet at Mansfield Road. A ball field and a smaller park near Sligo Creek also could be impacted, he told the council. Still, the state would explore the possibility of a Wayne Avenue tunnel, Madden said.
Photo of Sacramento’s light-rail system courtesy of Flickr user PaulKimo9.
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Dig Baby Dig! I would much rather have a tunnel go through DTSS and along Wayne Avenue. I think the single-track concept through the Capital Crescent Trail is a brain dead idea. I would hate to see the Purple Line project get ruined because of some rich snobs from Chevy Chase don’t want to share their precious trail with public transit. After all, how many Chevy Chase residents really use Metro anyway?
The single-track concept is absurd. How long is a study going to take? This is another delay tactic to sabotage the Purple Line.
One of the big problems with Metro is that there are only TWO tracks. So, unlike in other cities, they have no flexibility when there’s a breakdown or maintenance is needed. And they really think that ONE track is a workable idea?
I am a big fan of public transit, but I can’t imagine that a single track trolley line is a form of transportation that’s going to get me out of my car when I have to go to Bethesda.
Wombat makes a great point. I’m very much in favor of the purple line in some form, but a single track is not the way to go. Metro has numerous issues that can never be resolved because they didn’t plan for more tracks.
Obviously the single track suggestion is just meant to slow down the processes – a filibuster wrapped in a suggestion if you will. Just more of the same crap from the Southwestern elite of MoCo and their chain link fenced-in stroller path.
For next years zombie walk, I propose we descend upon the fenced in trail in true Land of the Dead fashion.
Whoa, IHY! Some of the Bethesda people have lived there for years, and want to save the trees that border their backyards. The notion that this is all about rich people/and or the country club is just plain wrong.
Indeed, the Purple Line is all about yuppies. It’s the dream of developers break the back of Fred Flintstone just to get enough granite for the countertops alone. Planners envision still more overpriced hi-rises, that yuppies can trolley to. Long Branch and Langley Park will face massive redevelopment pressure. The non-yuppies now living there will be displaced.
LMH said “Some of the Bethesda people have lived there for years, and want to save the trees that border their backyards”
The problem with the folks in Bethesda is that they believe they OWN the property where the purple line will go. They don’t. If they want more trees why don’t they plant more trees in their backyards? Those folks in Bethesda knew that the property was bought decades ago by the state with the intent to build a public transportation system. At this point, if they are not willing to accept the purple line they should move.
Actually, the opposite will happen with the Purple Line. You will see greater numbers of lower wage workers from Long Branch, Langley Park and PG County using the Purple Line to commute to Bethesda.
The monied districts of Montgomery County want to keep themselves cut off from people from the eastern side of the county. Bad enough you have the Silver Spring proletariat commuting to Bethesda by bus. I think the Crescent Trail argument is a complete BS stunt by the Bethesda/Chevy Chase crowd. They don’t want poor people to have convenient access to their neighborhoods. That’s the bottom line. Remember Georgetown and the issue of extending a Metro line to that neighborhood in 1970s and 1980s?
So no… the Purple Line doesn’t benefit yuppies much; the goal is to make commuting easier for PG and eastern Montgomery County. For once, the county government and the state of Maryland is throwing a freaking $1+ billion bone to the common classes. By the way, yuppies typically drive to their jobs in downtown DC, Bethesda, or Northern Virginia. They would get very little benefit out of the light rail line.
And not every Metro station has been a success for yuppie development either. Gee, how is the gentrification of Wheaton working out? I don’t see many working-class Latinos or black families leaving the neighborhoods near the Wheaton Metro Station. I still see the dive Salvadoran delis, the coin laundromats and the pawn shops lining Georgia Ave. I REALLY notice plenty of vacancies and big price reductions of those granite-top, stainless steel, filing-cabinet condos. Huh. I guess the market capitalist system is a great leveler after all.
Editor’s note: This comment was edited for content. — JD (Jan 28, 2009)
tj said: “Those folks in Bethesda knew that the property was bought decades ago by the state with the intent to build a public transportation system. At this point, if they are not willing to accept the purple line they should move.”
tj, some of those folks brought their homes before the decision. And you are making my point that the Purple Line is all about moving. As in moving people out of their present homes and apartments. MoCo officials blew it big-time by starting this thing as a rails-to-trails-back-to-rails project. They should have started with a comprehensive study of the existing system of buses, taxis, etc., and improved that first.
This was always slated to be a trolley line since the Coal trains stopped moving and they codified it in the Master Plan of 1990. The market is an indication that people want something, be they poor, rich or middle class. If there’s a scarcity of a commodity, the price goes up, so one would infer that they should build more trolleys through out the area to offset any dislocation of people because of it’s scarcity. In fact it’s born out in Cities like New York where there are subways everywhere. Not every neighborhood is full of yuppies because all neighborhoods have acess to good public transportation. Anyway, what’s so wrong with yuppies? I’m sure a lot of immigrant moms would love their kids to be young urban professionals, it’s called the American Dream that your kids do well.
A single track is dumb idea. Metro proves it is difficult to run reliable service with two tracks, let alone one. Metro service on the weekends is a mess because they have to take sections of track out of service for maintenance.
On the other hand, putting the line in a tunnel through downtown Silver Spring is a necessity if we want to have reliable schedules and avoid messing up Silver Spring’s traffic even more.
Thayer-D, to me the term “yuppie” is a loaded one, so I rarely use it. But it implies college-educated person who is at least somewhat into conspicuous consumption.
What I want is a strong middle class. If that immigrant mom did not attend college, her kid has a crummy chance of getting a bachelor’s degree or higher. Same is true of a non-immigrant waitress or burger-flipper mom.
UPS drivers are middle-class. Are they called yuppies? What about someone with a degree in English who works as a low-level office assistant? I want housing stability for them too, not places that are constantly scrambling toward more $. The market needs to produce more solid middle-class jobs making/doing useful stuff, and less real estate churn. PS-IHY, laundromats are essential. I’m glad they are still there.
The single-track idea is awful. Don’t these people know how difficult it is for other Metro lines to operate with just *two* tracks? Any problem at all on a single track would automatically debilitate the entire system! You don’t need a study to see that.
Luv, I respect your desire for everyone to have a nice home to live in and you won’t get an argument from me. But if you want housing stability, I don’t think you will find that in the way our economy is presently structured. That would be more of a communist system that “stabilizes” your options for you. As for the market producing more solid middle class jobs, that is exactly what the construction of the Purple Line will do. From design to construction to reducing the need for extra cars that non-immigrant UPS drivers might not be able to afford. It’s fatuous to conflate all the valid arguments for the Purple line with the fact that developers will profit from transit. I don’t think Montgomery County has ever made a secret of their desire for “smart growth”.
Just wanted to throw this bit of info into the mix …
According to state transit reps, tunneling through downtown Silver Spring will be really, really, really tough. (They never used the word “impossible”, so I won’t use it here.)
At the future transit center, the Purple Line track will be elevated above the existing Red Line track. From there, it rolls to Bonifant Street. The problem is, there isn’t enough distance for the tracks to go from an elevation of 50 feet (or whatever you guess to be above the Red Line tracks) to a 20-foot-deep tunnel beneath Bonifant, not without turning the ride into a roller coaster, anyway.
State reps have also said they won’t build any underground stations. If a tunnel were built beneath downtown Silver Spring, that would wipe out a station at the future library. And that stop is one that all the county big wigs want.
Calls for single-tracking and the Silver Spring tunnel are just ways for PL opponents to drag this out — so long that, they hope, other cities line up for and get federal $$$ for their transit projects while MoCo fiddles on and misses its chance.
Council members have no choice but to do this, lest PL haters organize to defeat them at at polls in ‘10. Said pols probably think they’ll get through this by eventually saying, “See, we STUDIED this and its not cost effective/technically practical, so we can’t do it.” Problem is, that STILL will result in political problems — because the only acceptable answer from the studies will be “Yes, we can and will do what the opposition wanted. Turns out, they are smarter than the engineers and budget people!”
In short, all this “further study” is just an enormous waste of time and money — and all motivated by political fear.
I don’t see any choice BUT to build an underground line through downtown Silver Spring. What the state reps are really saying is that we are not sure about spending hundreds of millions out of state coffers for what is only a Montgomery County project. You better believe state delegates from the Eastern Shore, Baltimore County, and Frederick are going to bust the governor’s crown jewels over this light rail transit project. After all, they have pork barrel plans for their own districts. And we know how Marylanders from the rural areas and Baltimore view the fine residents of Montgomery County.
I am sure the county and the MTA can work out a compromise for the station location. Does the station have to be at Bonifant Street? If the engineers go with the complete above ground approach through downtown, I don’t think this will be a popular move with DTSS community people.
Editor’s note: Don’t forget that Prince George’s County has something riding on this project, too. — JD (Jan 28, 2009)
Jennifer, you are right about Prince George’s. That county could start with improving its bus service, The Bus, which is far less robust than Montgomery’s Ride-On. If the Purple Line is built as a light rail, it will be a miserable failure without excellent bus connections.
Luv,
How do you account for this fact in your thesis?
“PG already has more Metro stations than MoCo (15 vs. 12 by my quick count)and far more than any Virginia jurisdiction. As these have failed to spur much of anything over decades of tremendous growth in this region.” “In just as many places if not more, Metro spurred nothing (Largo, New Carrolton, Cheverly, Greenbelt, etc…).”
It won’t be a positive move for the County to build the light Rail as a Street Level Trolley Through Silver Spring especially since most of the Streets are Narrow and Curvy (Wayne Avenue). A better solution should be building the Light Rail Underground Through Silver Spring including under the Red Line Subway Station.
Editor’s note: This comment was edited for readability. — JD (Jan 29, 2009)
PG County has the Ultimate Worst Bus Service in the Metro DMV Region. I am still at awe that PG County doesn’t have the Metro Bus/The County Bus Running Rapid to Upper Marlboro, Laurel, and Bowie in the Evenings after 7:00 PM and on the Weekends. I don’t wanna say its racism (as some PG Residence assume) but its some sort of Prejudice for not operating Bus Service in PG County on the Same Level as Montgomery County, Arlington/Alexandria, and Fairfax County.
Editor’s note: This comment was edited for readability. — JD (Jan 29, 2009)
Heavy rail versus light rail??? It’s still a train.
Thayer-D, there are some offices near the New Carrollton Metro. Even if some of the proposed redevelopment, such as near Greenbelt, seems remote, it has an impact. If a property slated for some far-off redevelopment were sold, the development plan would still come out in the title insurance process.
Todays W. Post describes some plans for Anacostia, with some refreshing quotes from one developer who wants low-rise apartments, and has stated he does not want to overwhelm the area with big, tall stuff. Too much of the transit-oriented development reminds me of big-box sprawl. It’s big. It’s way past human scale. It whacks trees. A human-scale place has trees that grew out of the soil, not in boxes. People can look out into trees and see acutal squirrels and a bird or two other than a starling or pigeon.
Utne Reader just ranked Montgomery county the most enlightened suburb in the country. I don’t know what else to say…
http://www.utne.com/2003-03-01/10MostEnlightenedSuburbs.aspx
That doesn’t really mean much since Montgomery County is losing its ranking (Top 5) as one of the wealthiest county in the nation in which Loudon County is taking Montgomery County spot.
I wonder is it due to Montgomery County’s anti-growth (sprawl) and anti-business atmosphere?
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/22/counties-rich-income-forbeslife-cx_mw_0122realestate.html
Wow. I live in Chevy Chase, and I’m far from a “rich snob.” There are a few reasons I am against the Purple Line.
1) The CCT runs less than 20 feet from my son’s bedroom window. We rent our apartment (the vast majority of renters here are low income, BTW), and we earn less than $35,000/year. Moving so that our baby can actually nap is far out of our reach, and since we don’t own the development, we can’t put up sound barriers.
2) Our deadend street is already full of traffic. Cars travel at twice the posted speed, and all spaces are taken by visitors to the large office building at the end of the street. That office building has its own parking, but nobody wants to PAY to use it, so they take up our parking instead. The planned Chevy Chase Lake stop will increase parked cars on our road, as there is no plan to add free parking for those users. There simply isn’t enough space for more cars to park.
3) When Chevy Chase Land Company puts in its “Lake East” project, traffic in Chevy Chase Lake (at Connecticut Avenue) will get worse, not better. Hasn’t anyone driven through Friendship Heights during rush hour? THAT is what Chevy Chase Land Company has admitted is in our future here. So, we’ll take a few cars off the road, then allow the developer to put even more back on. That just doesn’t make sense.
It’s not that I’m completely against the idea of public transit. I would even be fine with the Purple Line if any of my concerns were being addressed. But I have asked MTA officials several times, and I’ve never received an answer. My neighbors can’t get any response, either.
Maybe we’d be less “snobby” if someone would address our fears and concerns, rather than just ramming this project down our throats while ignoring our “feedback” at the public hearings.
Viv, please ignore the people who carelessly throw around terms like “snobs” at you and others who oppose the Purple Line for various reasons. The opposite of NIMBYism is equally pernicious: a stubborn disregard for the legitimate concerns of people affected by huge projects like the Purple Line.
There is a need for the Purple Line, but the goal should be to do it in the least disrupting, most accommodating way for all concerned — especially the people whose homes lie closest to the planned path.
There is absolutely no way to accomodate everyone’s concerns with respect to the purple line. There needs to be a focus on the greater good that the purple line will provide to thousands of commuters everyday. It will probably be at least 6 years before the purple line is built. If folks believe that the purple line will affect their quality of life then they should start looking for a new place to live. I, personally, will start looking to reside in a place that is close to the purple line.
You’re right, tj, we cannot accommodate everyone, but we can do the best we can.
Totally agree with TJ.
In any case Viv, by the time the Purple Line actually breaks ground your baby will be in college and hopefully by that time the opportunity to somewhere with less congestion will have presented itself.
Personally my hope is that the Purple Line starts pronto, and with folks taking to mass transit it’ll eliminiate some of the snafu that is Conneticut Ave.