This map would look even better with a streetcar connection from the Friendship Heights metro station to Georgetown, providing an improved transit option for residents along Wisconsin Avenue. Join the Wisconsin Avenue Streetcar Coalition to find out more and to support this route.

by Ben on Feb 16, 2010 11:32 am • link • report

It would be nice to see the BRT or other fixed-guideway transit lines in this map. I'd also wonder what ACT's position on the Purple Line spur up New Hampshire Avenue from Langley Park to White Oak would be.

The logic behind that it was that the right-of-way along Route 29 between Silver Spring and White Oak wasn't wide enough to accommodate light rail, while the ridership along New Hampshire Avenue (lined with apartment buildings and the FDA campus) may be higher. On the other hand, a destination like Downtown Silver Spring could generate higher ridership than Langley Park now or in the future.

by dan reed on Feb 16, 2010 11:52 am • link • report

Is heavy rail (Metro) the best option for going to Germantown given the distance between Shady Grove and and the Germantown Transit Center? Would bus rapid transit be a better option? Essentially expanding on the existing 100 service while adding some permanency to encourage growth?

Could a similar idea work to connect Olney to the Glenmont on the other end of the red line? To dramatically expand on the existing Y series of buses?

by Patrick on Feb 16, 2010 11:53 am • link • report

Not to mention the need to talk about additional east-west improvements. How are people going to get from the eastern side of the county to all of the stuff along Rockville Pike and I-270? The Purple Line is only so helpful in getting people between, say, Glenmont and Rockville or White Oak and White Flint.

by dan reed on Feb 16, 2010 11:54 am • link • report

Why no additional transit further up the GA Ave. corridor? Either extending the Red Line or LRT?

by JMG on Feb 16, 2010 11:54 am • link • report

How about a light rail or (pie in the sky dream) metro extension from West Hyattsville Metro up NH Ave. connecting with Purple Line, through White Oak (FDA headquarters), and continuing on Rt. 29 to ~Burtonsville?

by Scott on Feb 16, 2010 11:55 am • link • report

What is interesting is that ACT is so heavily focused on the I-270 corridor when the anti-growth movement is calling to kill development along that corridor and move it to places like East County that does not have the infrastructure to accomodate such a job base and is not very desireable corporate location due to the lack of nearby estate housing.

Does the ACT support growth in the corridor to accomodate this new infrastructure? This fantasy map is just more politics coming from the ACT coalition

by Cyrus on Feb 16, 2010 11:58 am • link • report

I can't see how a streetcar connecting White Flint with Gaithersburg makes sense. The distance is much to far to make it a viable option. I'm all for more mass transit, but the ideas need to be workable.

The best option in getting from Gaithersburg to southern Montgomery County and DC is the Metro.

by Cassidy on Feb 16, 2010 11:59 am • link • report

Why not be more grand. Maglev from Chicago to DC connecting to the DC to Boston and DC to Atlanta Maglev systems. With stations in Rockville and Silver Spring.

by Cyrus on Feb 16, 2010 12:01 pm • link • report

I think this is a pretty good plan, and should not look at what it does not have but what it does do well.

I think light rail up the 29 corridor is an excellent idea and is greatly needed. Eventualy it could expand to Columbia and would move traffic off 29 with is over crouded expesially during rush hour and away from the 4 corners intersection which is very unsafe at the moment.

I live on the 270 corridor but we at least have the redline they have nothing.

by Matt R on Feb 16, 2010 12:02 pm • link • report

Love it! It would be more helpful if you used a a real map rather than the wmata's 'fake' map. As you know, the two spurs of the red line in MoCo are much closer than they appear on this map!

by T. Aloisi on Feb 16, 2010 12:06 pm • link • report

Everyone loves metro, but I think we are shorting commuter rail. When you start talking about going all the way to Gaithersburg, I think commuter rail makes more sense. What we will need to do is link this up better with the metro then curerntly is.

Right now both MARC and Metro stop at Silver Spring, but getting between the stations is not easy. If we make it easier to get between MARC and Metro at Shady Grove, we link Gaithersburg to the metro and we also can use this connection to create some of the express trains that metro is lacking.

by nathaniel on Feb 16, 2010 12:06 pm • link • report

And what about Marc (and VRE hopefully) running on weekends? It would be nice to take a train to baltimore on a saturday trip or for sporting events.

by Canaan on Feb 16, 2010 12:59 pm • link • report

Ah, another ACT transit fantasy map. My life isn't complete without one of these.

@ nathaniel: Is it really necessary to have MARC stop at Shady Grove when it already stops at Rockville one stop to the south?

@ dan reed: Tell me Mayorga coffee could have been saved had there been an infill Metro station between Silver Spring and Takoma on the Red Line between Georgia and Burlington Aves. It'd be a good way to revitalize Silver Spring on Georgia south of the dark, dank Metro/MARC overpass.

And ACT: Before you give I-270 commuters all of the love, why not consider a two-station extension of the B route, with stops at Aspen Hill (Georgia @ Connecticut) and Norbeck (Georgia @ future ICC)? Let's have a little regional equity here!

by Reza on Feb 16, 2010 1:04 pm • link • report

Short sighted. The East side of the Red Line needs to be expanded north, further up Georgia Ave., and an outer loop to connect Germantown to Burtonsville (smack down the middle of the ICC) should be included, especially if BRT is under consideration.

by Redline SOS on Feb 16, 2010 1:27 pm • link • report

The one thing that jumps out at me on this map is that east-west trips are still a bottle neck. BRT alone can't fill in the gaps when the only major east-west roads south of the beltway are East West Hwy and then Military Rd. BRT would have done nothing on EW Hwy today when traffic was bumper-to-bumper for miles.

Without making more slices through Rock Creek park, there aren't easy answers, but the Purple line could be poised to also have more hubs to better connect it to N-S roads or diagonals along it's route. The purple line hubs are around 5 miles apart. Filling in a good network of potential transfers every 2.5 miles could make a big difference.

by Dan on Feb 16, 2010 1:31 pm • link • report

@Reza

I guess having a Metro station at its front door would've helped bring customers to Mayorga. On the other hand, it might have driven up land values so a one-story furniture warehouse-turned-coffeehouse would've been even less viable on that property.

For lack of being any closer to Metro (the station's a half-mile walk away), we should focus on pedestrian improvements to make it easier, safer, and more pleasant to walk between Downtown and South Silver Spring. The Georgia Avenue streetcar, were it ever extended to Silver Spring, could have a stop in the neighborhood as well, around Burlington Ave.

This proposal definitely raises the question of the value of extending Metro. Do we extend the Red Line two or three stops to Germantown, or do we provide fixed-guideway service over a broader portion of the county? Given our limited funding, I'd probably pick the latter.

by dan reed on Feb 16, 2010 1:37 pm • link • report

What about crossing the potomac and connecting the purple line to the orange line? All that wasted time going into the city to metro center would be eliminated.

by James on Feb 16, 2010 2:10 pm • link • report

@james : your comment is totally accurate I-270 is impassible not because people are traveling to DC, but because they are going to Virginia.

The last thing the Red Line needs is to be lengthened. It is overcrowded enough as it is, and I don't know if a single pair of tracks can handle much more capacity. A single incident at one station impacts anyone riding the line, even if they aren't traveling anywhere close.

Where's an option for River Rd?

by Michael on Feb 16, 2010 6:02 pm • link • report

How about something for the eastern and the north central part of the county; they really get any mention about any type of developments concerning private business ventures or transit.

As far as im concerned everything north of 108 and east of Georgia Ave should leave and start there own county because Montgomery County doesn't give a damn about them.

by kk on Feb 16, 2010 6:41 pm • link • report

Did you notice that this plan serves Burtonsville but not Langley Park? Makes me wonder who we're serving here.

by Jen Mueller on Feb 17, 2010 6:45 am • link • report

Sorry, just realized that there are no intermediate stops on the light rail lines. No longer seems like a ridiculous omission.

by Jen Mueller on Feb 17, 2010 6:47 am • link • report

@jen mueller

I don't know what races or income levels you're trying to point out by naming those places. I'm not familiar with them. What did you mean?

Thanks!

by James on Feb 17, 2010 9:23 am • link • report

@jen - a yellow line extension from W. Hyattsville (via Ft. Totten) along New Hampshire Ave. to Rt29 would serve both, while connecting to the Purple Line along the way.

by Scott on Feb 17, 2010 12:54 pm • link • report

The ACT is nothing but a scam group with the goals of sabatoging Highway Improvements along I-270. If these characters were soo geniuine with their so-called transit visionary they would be suggesting more High Speed Subway expansions to Frederick County and US 29 Corridor. I strongly believe that the only reason why they want mto stop growth along the I-270/MD 355 Corridor is because it is looking almost comparable to the Dulles Toll Road/VA 7/I-66 Corridor in which they fear that the High Paying IT Fortune 500 Businesses will relocate from Fairfax County and Loudon County then move into Montgomery and Frederick County by the way of attracting more High End Upscale Retail and Big Box Retail Development in Montgomery and Frederick Counties...........

by Adam on Feb 17, 2010 3:44 pm • link • report

Adam, with all those capital letters on common nouns, someone might think that you usually post as "James."

by Cavan on Feb 17, 2010 4:14 pm • link • report

Cavan- must you be a bullying troll just because someone makes a statement that you don't agree with?

by chad on Feb 20, 2010 5:38 am • link • report

chad: What about Cavan's comment sounds bullying? There's a commenter who keeps switching names and Uses a Lot of Capital Letters. Switching names frequently is not good comemnting etiquette, because while I like letting people post under pseudonyms if they wish, they really ought to use one and stick to it so we know who is who and which comments are from the same person as others. When, in the past, people have posted under lots of different names seemingly to make it sound as though many people agree with one point of view, I've asked them to stop and/or banned the behavior if necessary.

by David Alpert on Feb 20, 2010 9:11 am • link • report

Well, to me a transit "vision" ought to be complete. This doesn't feel complete, but it is interesting. I think the idea of extending the red line some on the western leg is worth considering. But the issue is where do people up there normally make most of their trips. It's and would be great if they only would make them a few stops within MoCo, like how the R-B corridor can work in Arlington, using up space that otherwise runs empty.

The point about the Purple line west to NoVa is something that needs to be raised of course.

I agree about light rail, maybe, up Georgia and Colesville.

But there needs to be some better east west connections mid county probably?

cf my presentation to ACT a couple years ago:

http://www.slideshare.net/rllayman/montgomery-county-and-transit-revised-presentation?type=powerpoint

by Richard Layman on Feb 21, 2010 8:31 pm • link • report

re: Chad/Cavan/Adam and all the rest: we all, living in the DC metro region, feel your pain.

As a MARC rider I confess that Chad's post was good for a giggle, because it shows how emotional this whole issue has become. And we shouldn't fault anyone for venting here -- better than doing in on the train/road in the final analysis.

Most other developed countries approach this issue with a variety of solutions. Light rail, urban rail, suburban rail, tram, bus, and on and on so that a robust fabric is created.

I'm not sure why Maryland is hooked on an all-or-nothing (untenable) solution to the issues facing one of the nation's most complex metro complexes.

Okay, yes, venting...

by Dean on Mar 9, 2010 7:56 pm • link • report