Save The Trail Coalition

Letter to FTA

from Community Groups

October 2009

Peter M. Rogoff, Administrator

Federal Transit Administration

Washington, DC

Dear Administrator Rogoff,

We are leaders of fifteen communities and civic organizations, representing more than 20,000 households in Montgomery County, Maryland, responding to Maryland Governor O’Malley’s choice of light rail along the Capital Crescent Trail as his preferred alignment for the Purple Line.  We are deeply dismayed that our voices have not been heard, and are writing to advise you that this alignment is not truly a locally preferred alternative. 

During the public comment period for the DEIS, more than 1,200 individuals and more than a dozen communities wrote or testified that light rail on the Trail was unacceptable.  In addition, more than 18,000 trail supporters signed petitions asking that transit be placed in another location or tunneled underground.

What is at stake is three miles of a beautiful, serene Trail, lined with 17 acres of mature tree cover.  The State’s own Environmental Impact Statement makes plain that the trees will be clear-cut and that trains will run 7-10 feet from hikers and bikers – destroying the safety, beauty and tranquility of the Trail.

The Capital Crescent Trail is the most popular Trail in Maryland, with more than a million uses per year.  Studies have shown that the section of the Trail between Silver Spring and Bethesda, threatened by the Purple Line, sees over 10,000 uses per week.  Hikers, bikers, joggers, senior citizens, dog walkers, families and children of all ages and abilities enjoy this multi-use Trail.  Support for the Trail is diverse and widespread.

It is shortsighted and irresponsible to destroy this irreplaceable greenspace which is both a local and regional treasure.  Hikers and bikers come from all over the National Capital Region to use and enjoy the Trail.  The Trail is an essential link in a circuit of regional trails that connect communities and parks in Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia, including Rock Creek Park, Silver Spring, Kensington, Rockville, Lake Needwood, the C&O Canal Tow Path, Georgetown, Alexandria and Mt. Vernon, Virginia.

We also are alarmed at the danger of putting trains so close to the Trail and homes -- slicing through communities that share schools and a community center.  Putting trains so close -- less than 20 feet from some homes -- will severely alter the nature of these communities, and not for the better.  Of even greater concern is the safety of our children, who will be crossing at grade where trains will be passing in both directions every three minutes at 35-50 mph.  This is an invitation to disaster.  Just last month, two teenagers were killed by the Baltimore Light Rail that passed through their neighborhood.  An average of nine pedestrians are killed by trains in Maryland every year.  This is a danger that we cannot abide.

As a CSX spokesman said after a 23-year-old man was killed recently while wearing ear phones as he listened to music and took a short cut across train tracks in north Bethesda, ‘‘The important message is that railroad tracks are places of business in a sense like a highway or an airport runway.  These are not places for recreation or taking short cuts.”  Conversely, the Trail, which offers walking and biking shortcuts to local schools, a community center and downtown Bethesda, clearly, is not the place for trains.

We urge you to reject any proposal that would put mass transit along the Capital Crescent Trail.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Phyllis Edelman, Chair, Citizens’ Coordinating Committee on Friendship Heights

Linda Skalet, Bethesda Civic Coalition

David Saltzman, Montgomery County Purple Line Advisory Group, East Bethesda Citizens Association

Kathy Strom, Mayor, Town of Chevy Chase

Kensington Town Council, Town of Kensington

Marilyn Mazuzan, Mayor, Town of Oakmont

Michael Marsh, President, Chevy Chase Hills Civic Association

Terri Lukas, Chevy Chase West Neighborhood Association

Jim Crilley, Chevy Chase Hamlet

Eric Peek, President, Coquelin Run Civic Association

Verna Curtis, President, Edgevale Civic Association

Timothy C. Coughlin, President, Overlook Homeowners Association

Bette Petrides, President, Citizens for a Better Bethesda

Mier Wolf, Greater Bethesda Chevy Chase Coalition

Maureen Jais-Mick, Chair, Rethinking the Purple Line

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