Save The Trail Coalition

Testimony -- December 10, 2009

before the Montgomery County Planning Board

Deborah Ingram, Chevy Chase

My name is Deborah Ingram.  I live in Chevy Chase, Maryland and have done so since 1987.  My back yard abuts the Capital Crescent Trail.   I am here to testify against the proposed revision of the 1994 Master Plan detailed in the Functional Master Plan, which changes the Purple Line from single-tracking to double-tracking between Bethesda and Silver Spring and moves it from the South side of the right of way to the North side of the right of way between Bethesda and Rock Creek.

Like many others, my family and I use the Trail daily for exercise and to navigate around our community. My son crosses the Trail from our home at least four times a day to reach Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and we both walk on the Trail into Bethesda almost daily to run errands.  I do not drive so do all of my shopping on foot and appreciate, perhaps more than most, not having to try and cross Wisconsin Avenue which is a nightmare for pedestrians.

The proposed Purple Line has many problems including: 1) selection of the wrong alignment if ridership and public transit is really the goal, 2) the destruction of urban forest and what that impact will be on the environment. 3) the loss of irreplaceable urban green space that serves as parkland for the region  and that has become increasingly important as the density of the Bethesda area has increased , 4) the loss of the heavily used Capital Crescent Trail which serves both commuting and recreational uses and for movement between neighborhoods.

The proposed double-tracking between Bethesda and Silver Spring has additional negative consequences that have not been adequately addressed in the proposal.   The most important is safety. 

    1) The light rail will run through neighborhoods and block paths that are currently used by many many children and adults to move from those neighborhoods to schools and community recreation facilities.  For example, students who reside in the Town of Chevy Chase cut through yards of houses on Elm Street to reach the Capital Crescent Trail, reach the Trail from Elm Street park, and reach the Trail via the town’s path from Lynn Drive, and then walk across the Trail to reach Montgomery Avenue and then on to the high school. Students at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, both those who live in the Town of Chevy Chase and many who do not, make the reverse journey to reach houses in the Town and to reach the Leland Community Center.  Like everyone else, they want to take the shortest route.  Once the train is there, many will continue to cross where they now cross even if it means cutting through any fencing that is in the way.  The Town’s crossing at the Lynn path will remain open for crossing.  It will be dangerous enough for these students, sleep-deprived in the morning and plugged into cell phones and ipods to cross a single-track at the Lynn Drive path crossing where a driver might expect them, but that is not the only place where they will cross.  Double-tracking rather than single-tracking takes this risk to a much higher level. It will be far more dangerous for these kids to cross two tracks, with trains bearing down at high speed from both directions, than to cross a single-track.

   2) If you doubt that kids will bother to cross the track except at the Lynn Drive Path then you are naive. The track will completely blocks access from the Town of Chevy chase to the high school, McDonalds’s, and East Bethesda and access to the town and the Leland Center from the high school and East Bethesda and the kids will NOT just walk the much longer way around. They WILL cut through the fencing. It’s an accident waiting to happen. See

http://www.journalism.umd.edu/cns/wire/2009-editions/05-May-editions/090505-Tuesday/TrainTrespassers_CNS-UMCP.html and http://www.wbaltv.com/news/19983939/detail.html

and the attached articles about safety issues.

   2) The trains will be running quietly as they approach.  Plugged in kids, tired kids, horsing around kids, and you really think they’re paying attention to trains speeding towards them from one direction?  So, you think it is a good idea to compound this by having the trains come from two directions along here?

    3)  Because the right of way is so narrow just before the Tunnel and the Tunnel itself is so narrow, it cannot accommodate double tracks and the Trail. This will necessitate elevating the Trail above the train and we are told the elevation will start at 44th Street.  This will result in a serious loss of privacy for residents along the upper portion of Elm St., not to mention aesthetic and safety issues for the Trail. I can imagine that an elevate fence-enclosed Trail will provide a heavenly place for skate boarders – many of whom have been clamoring for a skate board park in the area. Now they’ll have one.

Regarding moving the train from the North side of the right-of-way to the South side, what is the justification for such a major change to the Master Plan? This proposal seems to fly in the face of good sense and good planning. Why would you choose to place Trail users between the trains and the Sport and Health Club, other businesses, and the Riviera, and push the trains alongside residential backyards?  Having the trains bumped up against our back fences will seriously compromise our peaceful use of our property; interrupt our sleep and quiet enjoyment of our homes.  You do realize that the trains will be running every 3 minutes (in each direction which means there will be one moving along one side or the other pretty much all the time) and that they will run from 5 a.m. to 3 a.m. on weekends?  You should be maximizing their distance from residences, not minimizing it.

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