OBVIOUS: After ICC is built, Council now back Purple Line

ROCKVILLE, Md., July 27, 2010— The Montgomery County Council today unanimously approved revisions to the Purple Line Functional Plan that address station locations, alignment of some portions of the route and adding access points the adjacent Capital Crescent Trail. The Purple Line is a proposed 16-mile rapid transit line extending from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George's County. It will provide a direct connection to the Metrorail Red, Green and Orange lines. The Purple Line will also connect to MARC, AMTRAK and local bus services.

The original draft of the Purple Line Plan was submitted by the Montgomery County Planning Board. Recommended changes to the plan have since been offered by the public, the Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environmental Committee and the full Council. Among the recommended changes the Council approved today are:

Adding specific station locations east of the Silver Spring Station. Building the Capital Crescent Trail, that is to run parallel to the Purple Line from Bethesda to Silver Spring, on the north side of the tracks rather than on the south side between Bethesda and Rock Creek. Adding more access points to the trail, creating a total of more than 20 locations for residents to enter the trail. Relocating the Sanders/Woodside Station, honoring Harry Sanders, the “Father of the Purple Line,” from Spring Street to 16th Street. Showing a potential future station on Wayne Avenue near Dale Drive in East Silver Spring, but not building the station without further consensus from the community. The Council also indicated its intent and desire, should the station ever be built, that it not be a predicate for up-zoning the single-family residential neighborhood around it.