On January 22, my colleagues and I on the Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy & Environment Committee concurred with the county’s Planning Board and the County Executive and voted unanimously to recommend to the State that it build the Purple Line as a light rail transit system along the alignment which has been in the County’s Master Plan since 1990. I cast this vote because I believe that light rail along the Master Plan Alignment provides a first-class mass transit system consistent with the creation of a sustainable community and is the best long-term option for solving our serious east-west mobility problems, which will only worsen with time.

I examined carefully the request by the Town of Chevy Chase and others that the bus rapid transit on Jones Bridge Road be selected as the preferred alternative, and I wrote to Maryland Transportation Secretary John Porcari to request that this option be given full and careful consideration. However, along with the Planning Board, the County Executive and my colleagues on the Council, I do not believe that the bus rapid transit (BRT) option that runs along Jones Bridge Road to Wisconsin Avenue in shared traffic lanes and then heads south to downtown Bethesda, thus avoiding the Georgetown Branch Trail, is a viable option. BRT along Jones Bridge Road would provide insufficient capacity to serve a growing ridership, take more than twice as long as light rail on the Master Plan Alignment, exacerbate existing traffic problems, and is opposed by residents living along its route. I also believe that although BRT is less expensive, light rail provides a superior transit system and is more consistent with the quality of life and the urban experience in downtown Bethesda.

Nonetheless, I fully understand and regret that this recommendation will require significant sacrifices on the part of many of my constituents who treasure the Georgetown Branch Trail. The interim trail, which runs along the right-of-way purchased by the county in 1988 for the Purple Line, has over the last twenty years become a unique and beloved resource for the thousands of users who walk, run and bike under the shade of its trees. Although I believe that light rail is not fundamentally inconsistent with a hiker-biker trail, no one disputes that building the Purple Line will fundamentally alter the current character of the trail experience.

Given this context, I believe it is my duty to fight on behalf of the constituents who value the trail to ensure that the trail experience is enhanced to the greatest extent possible. In particular, the State’s representatives have affirmed in response to my questions that the trail is an integral part of the Purple Line project, and will be rebuilt at the highest quality concurrently with the transit portion of the project. In addition, I have obtained assurances that the State will mitigate tree cutting, replant trees and generally provide attractive landscaping, widen the trail from 10 feet to 12 or even 16 feet in some areas, use grass tracks, run the trail under Wisconsin Avenue in a tunnel under the Air Rights and Apex buildings, and limit the extension of the tail tracks into our public commons at Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues. I have also requested that the State examine alternative light rail technologies, such as diesel-electric light rail, that do not require overhead catenary wires and would thus more easily permit tree regrowth. As this project proceeds, I will continue to work with the State to make certain that the completed trail remains an enjoyable recreational experience in an esthetically pleasing environment.

I know that this decision will disappoint many of my constituents who live near the Georgetown Branch trail and use it daily. My responsibility as a district councilmember sometimes requires that I balance the wishes of some of my constituents against what I conclude to be the larger public good. This is the hardest part of my job. In a recent column, Marc Fisher noted that the Purple Line issue required a choice between the greater joy and the greater good. I agree that the “greater joy” of the trail as it exists today must unfortunately be compromised for the “greater good” of shared transit and a trail. I believe that once the State builds the Purple Line and the new, wider trail, Montgomery County residents will have the benefits of both a speedy, reliable transit system and a truly enjoyable, esthetically pleasing hiker-biker trail for generations to come.