Northern Prince George’s County residents shared their hopes and concerns for the proposed Purple Line light rail project Tuesday at an open house meeting in College Park.
The Purple Line is a proposed $1.9 billion 16-mile light rail system extending from Bethesda to New Carrollton and includes 21 new stations. If fully supported, developers aim to begin construction in 2015 and have the light rail fully operational by 2020, said Mike Madden, the Purple Line’s project manager since 2003, when planning first began.
About 60 people gathered at the University of Maryland, College Park’s Stamp Student Union to hear the Purple Line’s achievements to this point and view statistics, charts and video renderings of what the project may look like when finished.
“The city has vested interest in the Purple Line as it connects the university to the College Park Metro,” College Park Mayor Andy Fellows said. “We need the Purple Line to connect Montgomery County and Prince George’s County for what has been too long divided.”
Madden said getting the Oct. 7 support of the Federal Transportation Administration to enter the preliminary engineering phase is important because developers can now determine specific aspects such as rail alignment, station aesthetics, vehicle use and more.
“We’re getting ready to build the project, not just plan it,” Madden said. "The project can bring a lot of community revitalization and transit oriented development to stations other than the metro stations.”
He said the Purple Line will take an estimated 20,000 cars off the road each day and will have about 60,000 daily riders.
Ajay Bhatt, president of Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail, a Montgomery County-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving park land, said developers need to scrap the project as three of the 16 miles of rail will remove 20-acres surrounding the Capital Crescent Trail, a forested trail inside the Capital Beltway.
“The destruction of the trail is what we’re most concerned about. If they scrap the plan, the trail gets saved,” he said.
University Park resident Dieter Brill said he came to show support and see how the project is moving forward. He said his family shares one vehicle so he is looking forward to having an alternative means of transportation.
“It’s great for public transportation. I’ll use it for local trips,” he said.
David Harrington, a College Park Estates resident, said he mostly is in support but is concerned about the increased amount of parking at each of the Purple Line stations and said the increase will congest surrounding neighborhoods.
“I have reservations on the impact of where I live,” Harrington said. “The lack of parking is going to force all sorts of commuters into the communities to seek parking.”
djgross@gazette.net
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