What is the Purple Line Loop?

The Metro Purple Line Loop plan was created in 2003 by Metro staff and supported by former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan. 

The Metro Loop would connect the two legs of Metro’s Red Line with a Metro line along the Beltway between Silver Spring and Bethesda Naval Medical Center, where BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) is moving Walter Reed Hospital.

Why is the Metro Purple Line Loop a Superior Transit Plan?

• ** It would provide seamless Metro connections for staff and visitors coming to Medical Center, taking cars off the road.

• **It would increase Metro ridership and improve Metro service -- For example, it would provide a “one-seat ride” from Union Station, north to Silver Spring and across the Loop to Bethesda Medical Center and Grosvenor, and thereby lessen serious congestion at Judiciary Square and Metro Center stops.

• **It would improve Metro's ability to respond to emergencies by providing an alternate route for Red Line trains.

• **It would allow for growth and expansion, especially with the possibility of future connections to Virginia and White Oak.

• ** The Loop would not preclude any plans for transit east of Silver Spring.

Planning Board Review in 2003

In January 2003, the Montgomery County Planning Board staff reviewed the Loop plan at the request of the County Council.   

At the Planning Board Hearing on January 30, 2003, the Planning Board found that the Loop is technically feasible.  They also recognized the operational advantages of using Metrorail technology to join Silver Spring and Bethesda. 

Two of the five Planning Board members believed that the Loop should be fully studied with an EIS. 

Among the advantages they saw in the Purple Line Loop are the following: 

• *the regional importance of an expanded Metrorail system;

• *the national security importance of adding redundancy to Metrorail operational capabilities;

• *economic development;

• *avoidance of the community impact and degradation of trail experience caused by the light rail along the Capital Crescent Trail;

• *and the prospect of Metrorail extensions to Virginia and White Oak made possible by the Purple Line Loop. (Planning Board Chairman, Derick Berlage, Letter to County Council President, Michael Subin, January 31, 2003.) 

But three of the Board members preferred not to study the Loop further, because they believed the light rail would be less expensive, more cost effective (though they acknowledged there would be greater ridership on the Loop), better serve land uses between Silver Spring and Bethesda, and in a position to request federal construction funds sooner. 

However, “all five commissioners agreed that if for whatever reason the decision is made not to request construction funding authorization for the Georgetown Branch option, then planning funding should be sought to complete an [EIS] that examines the PPL (Purple Line Loop) along with the IPL(light rail) .”  (Glen Orlin, County Council Staff Memo to County Council, January 31, 20003). 

 Current Situation

In 2007, the County and State are not in a position to seek immediate Federal funding for construction of the Purple Line.  There are no State funds available to match Federal funds.   And thus, there is time now to re-consider aspects of the Purple Line and whether there are superior ways to meet County needs and whether there are new factors that could play a significant role in the re-evaluation of the Metro Purple Line Loop plan. 

The Loop plan should be revisited with BRAC and NIH expansion in mind.  The Federal Government might give points or priority to a plan that provides much needed infrastructure for BRAC and NIH, improves the Metro system, and enhances national security. 

In addition, serious consideration should be given to the very strong opposition in the community and among trail users to building the light rail Purple Line along the popular Capital Crescent Trail.  This opposition could very well undermine attempts to obtain Federal funding.  It would be far wiser to seek a consensus plan that unites, rather than divides, the community around a transit plan.

PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL -- Ask the Governor to study the Metro Purple Line Loop!