Hogan moves forward on Purple Line

[bufflove]

Hogan's delayed the Purple Line bid deadline for a third time. Now the project's already a year behind schedule.
Purple Line bid deadline pushed back to November - The Washington Post

[adelphi_sky]

Originally Posted by bufflove

Hogan's delayed the Purple Line bid deadline for a third time. Now the project's already a year behind schedule.
Purple Line bid deadline pushed back to November - The Washington Post

That was inevitable given the changes in funding responsibilities. It's not necessarily a bad thing. The bidders should be talented enough to come up with good bids given the new challenges. We send people to the moon and to outer space. Finding ways to make a light-rail line more affordable shouldn't be too difficult. Especially if the bidders are still highly interested in bidding for the project.

[DistrictSonic]

This is not unusual for projects this size. There are things which need to be worked out in the interim.

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by bufflove

Hogan's delayed the Purple Line bid deadline for a third time. Now the project's already a year behind schedule.
Purple Line bid deadline pushed back to November - The Washington Post

This is ridiculous, the Purple line should have finished construction and be moving passengers by now. This has been going on and on since the early 2000's! It will be over 20 years to have a 19 mile light rail system get off the ground and running successfully.

[adelphi_sky]

Originally Posted by the resident09

This is ridiculous, the Purple line should have finished construction and be moving passengers by now. This has been going on and on since the early 2000's! It will be over 20 years to have a 19 mile light rail system get off the ground and running successfully.

To be honest, it is right on schedule. It is rare for multi-billion dollar heavy infrastructure projects to go from conception to reality in less than a few decades in heavily populated areas. They are expensive and very political as you can see with the Purple Line having to make it through Maryland's gubernatorial flip flops every 8 years.

By 2019 it will have taken 34 years to build the Silver Line - Greater Greater Washington

[Chriz Brown]

Purple line should be underground.

But lately everyone is penny pinching when it comes to transportation projects. The silver line was originally supposed to be underground, but it would of cost too much $$$.

Subway routing is always superior to above ground. It allows for the land above to be used for whatever and still allows the train to have right-of-way.

Most other countries are investing heavily into subway systems.. while the U.S. isn't doing much of anything new. The DC metro is the last completed subway system in the U.S. and that was 1975. The NYC subway looks like crap. Why not renovate it somewhat? NOPE.

Shameful.

[bufflove]

Originally Posted by Chriz Brown

The DC metro is the last completed subway system in the U.S. and that was 1975. .

That's not even remotely accurate...in any way. DC metro opened in 1976 (not '75) and a number of other cities have added subways since then - off the top of my head, there's Baltimore's metro (don't you even live there? You only comment on their threads, as far as I know), Los Angeles, and Atlanta. I'm extremely pro-transit, but making up "facts" as you go doesn't help anyone.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by Chriz Brown

Purple line should be underground.

But lately everyone is penny pinching when it comes to transportation projects. The silver line was originally supposed to be underground, but it would of cost too much $$$.

Subway routing is always superior to above ground. It allows for the land above to be used for whatever and still allows the train to have right-of-way.

Most other countries are investing heavily into subway systems.. while the U.S. isn't doing much of anything new. The DC metro is the last completed subway system in the U.S. and that was 1975. The NYC subway looks like crap. Why not renovate it somewhat? NOPE.

Shameful.

While I totally agree that transit in the US is WAY behind the rest of the world now especially heavy transit (subways etc), I don't think the purple line needs to be underground. For one it would cost a bazllion dollars to build a 16 mile subway. Seriously, it would cost at least another 5 billion and probably push the project to over 10 billion, so no way is that feasible. If anything, I would spend that kind of money on the existing DC subways to add siding tracks so that they can have express trains and not be delayed by track work. Make the existing subway function more like NYC’s subway and yes, that system needs updating too.

The purple line will do more than move people. It will be a catalyst for economic development. I actually think light rail will do more for the corridor (attract transit oriented development etc) than an underground line would. You spend 10 billion building a subway from New Carrolton to Bethesda and very little would happen, maybe some new development at some of the new stations. You spend 2 billion on a light rail line and you will see a lot of investment and new development all along the line. Light rail is scalable and better suited for developing walking urban areas and corridor while heavy rail tends to have a few major stations with activity while the rest are quiet or are just parking lots and nothing happens between the stations.

The purple line is a well-designed and thought out project. It will compliment MARC and Metro and should bring all kinds of development to Prince Georges and Montgomery County. They need something to keep them in competition with NoVA. I’m surprised there is anybody against it.

[DistrictSonic]

Originally Posted by kcmo

While I totally agree that transit in the US is WAY behind the rest of the world now especially heavy transit (subways etc), I don't think the purple line needs to be underground. For one it would cost a bazllion dollars to build a 16 mile subway. Seriously, it would cost at least another 5 billion and probably push the project to over 10 billion, so no way is that feasible. If anything, I would spend that kind of money on the existing DC subways to add siding tracks so that they can have express trains and not be delayed by track work. Make the existing subway function more like NYC’s subway and yes, that system needs updating too.

The purple line will do more than move people. It will be a catalyst for economic development. I actually think light rail will do more for the corridor (attract transit oriented development etc) than an underground line would. You spend 10 billion building a subway from New Carrolton to Bethesda and very little would happen, maybe some new development at some of the new stations. You spend 2 billion on a light rail line and you will see a lot of investment and new development all along the line. Light rail is scalable and better suited for developing walking urban areas and corridor while heavy rail tends to have a few major stations with activity while the rest are quiet or are just parking lots and nothing happens between the stations.

The purple line is a well-designed and thought out project. It will compliment MARC and Metro and should bring all kinds of development to Prince Georges and Montgomery County. They need something to keep them in competition with NoVA. I’m surprised there is anybody against it.

That's the thing with light rail, if you need to scale it up you always can. Additionally subway would have incurred high costs.

Also in terms of subway vs elevated in terms of heavy rail, it's hard to say there is any major disadvantages to either. People fail to realize most major subway systems actually have both a subway and elevated rails.

Many of the best systems in the world are both heavy and light rail, including Tokyo's system. Generally speaking you want a mix of heavy rail, light rail/streetcars, buses, and bike paths. Even most european systems incorporate all four.