Purple Line (Maryland)

Purple Line
Overview
Type	Light rail transit
System	Maryland Transit Administration
Status	Approved
Locale	Montgomery County, MD Prince George's County, MD
Termini	Bethesda (West) New Carrollton (East)
Stations	21 (planned)
Daily ridership	64,800 (2030 projection)
Operation
Planned opening	2022; 5 years' time (2022) (estimated)
Owner	Maryland Transit Administration
Operator(s)	Purple Line Transit Partners
Character	At-grade, elevated, and underground
Technical
Track length	16.2 mi (26.1 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄4 in (1,429 mm)
Route map Locally Preferred Alternative Bethesda Connecticut Avenue Lyttonsville Road 16th Street Silver Spring Silver Spring Library, Fenton Street Dale Drive Manchester Place Long Branch Piney Branch Road Takoma Park–Langley Park Transit Center Montgomery Prince Georges Riggs Road Adelphi Road Campus Center East Campus College Park M Square Riverdale Park Beacon Heights Annapolis Road/Glenridge New Carrollton This diagram:

The Purple Line, previously designated the Bi-County Transitway, is a planned 16.2 mi (26.1 km) transit line to link the Red, Green, and Orange lines of the Washington Metro transportation system in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. The project is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). On October 7, 2011 the proposed light rail line received Federal Transit Administration approval to enter the detailed engineering phase which, according to the Washington Post, is "a significant step forward in its decades-long trek toward construction."

In 2016, the MTA selected the Purple Line Transit Partners, a consortium led by Fluor Enterprises, to design and build the Purple Line and to operate and maintain it for 36 years. Construction began in late 2016, with service projected to begin in 2022, though a legal challenge has stalled work on the new line.

The Purple Line started out as one project but the name was transferred to another. It was first conceived in 1994 by John J. Corley Jr., an architect with Harry Weese Associates, which designed Washington's Metro System. It was proposed as a multibillion-dollar Metro line around the 64-mile Capital Beltway. In 1998, the Beltway Purple Line got considerable political support from Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan and Governor Paris Glendening, but then as a $10 billion, 30 mile line from National Harbor to Montgomery Mall.

In 1987, CSX had expressed a desire to abandon the Georgetown Branch rail line and leaders in Maryland immediately began to coinsider adapting it for transit and a trail. Eventually this became known as the "Inner Purple Line" to distinguish it from the Purple Line. By 2001, the idea of a Beltway Metro had been abandoned as too costly and the name was attached to the Bethesda to New Carrollton line.