Bus depot will expand

Transitway plans complicate site in Lyttonsville

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Plans to expand a Silver Spring bus depot and service park will move forward while taking into account a future transitway that would provide an east-west connection between Bethesda and New Carrollton.

The Brookville Service Park, a bus depot in the Lyttonsville neighborhood of Silver Spring, initially would have included a bus fueling station at the entranceway to the facility in a spot that could also accommodate a railcar storage and maintenance facility for the Bi-County Transitway, also known as the Purple Line.

The transitway would accommodate either light rail or buses and there was some concern about how it would be affected by the service park expansion, said Councilwoman Nancy M. Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park at a March 28 County Council meeting.

The county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation will proceed with basic work on the service park, but will come back before the County Council with more concrete design plans, Floreen said.

Currently, there isn’t enough space in the service park for more buses, and the bus system has grown at a rate of 8 percent over the past two years, said Art Holmes, director of DPWT. ‘‘We are having to pass passengers up.”

Until the park has additional space, bus capacity will remain at 130. The first phase of the expansion will allow for an access road and parking so 150 buses can eventually be accommodated. Pedestrian safety and site security also will be addressed.

‘‘We need bus space now,” Holmes said.

The second phase will involve a redesign of the area, said Hamid Omidvar, chief of the design section of the county’s division of capital development.

Some options involve moving some buildings on the property, and reducing their footprints. Another option involves creating a cul-de-sac in the service park and putting the fueling station there.

Another alternative would involve building on the opposite side of Lyttonsville Place where industrial facilities are located, across from the current service park, he said. Under that alternative, the site would have to be appraised and the county would have to determine if the owner were willing to sell.