UMD tries another Purple Line route

As reported yesterday by the UMD Diamondback and Rethink College Park, the University of Maryland has proposed yet another alignment for the Purple Line on campus.

Under the title “Purple Line may be built partially underground”, the Diamondback reports on a meeting between the campus administration and the University Senate. The author reports that a deal is close to being struck about an underground Purple Line route through campus. According to the Diamondback, the Maryland Transit Administration suggested the subterranean alignment.

Unfortunately, this is inaccurate. I spoke with both Michael Madden, project manager for the Purple Line, and Ann Wylie, UM’s Vice President of Administrative Affairs, yesterday. They confirmed that the University requested that the Maryland Transit Administration conduct a study of the feasibility of a new tunneled route. Furthermore, MTA and UM still disagree on the preferred route.

For several years now, the University of Maryland administration has adamantly opposed any surface or aerial rail transit on campus. They have opposed any reasonable alternative, despite large support in the student body for a central route. They have long maintained that an underground placement of the line is the only acceptable alternative.

Transit dollars in the United States are scarce. So for as long as the University has opposed a surface alignment, MTA has called for one. Burying the line across campus would be prohibitively expensive, and without meeting federal cost-effectiveness criteria, the project won’t get built.

But the University continues to waste time and resources studying infeasible routes. The new proposal calls for a tunnel running south of the McKeldin Mall, south of Tydings and Francis Scott Key Halls. The map below shows a rough alignment. Neither MTA nor UM were able to provide information about the specific route the tunnel would take.

The locally preferred alternative is shown in purple. The new UM proposal

is in blue, with the tunnel section darker. (larger map)

In regards to this new proposal, “no agreement has been made,” said Dr. Ann Wylie, VP of Administrative Affairs.

Michael Madden explained that MTA had studied the tunnel alignment at the request of the University, but the results found that the tunnel was “not viable.” Dr. Wylie pointed out that MTA’s main objections to tunneling are cost-related. She indicated that the University was looking into funding.

Unfortunately, though, federal cost-effectiveness guidelines don’t take into account merely the amount of federal funding, but the entire cost of the project. Even if UMD was able to fund the full additional cost of the tunnel, it could still kill the project.

But there was more to object to in the Diamondback’s article than an inaccurate headline and getting the main point wrong. Despite overwhelming support among students, the reporter did not include the sentiments of a single person supportive of the Purple Line, not even a tunneled Purple Line.

The article dwells on the major problems some claim the Purple Line will bring to campus: crime and maimed pedestrians. The article fails to mention a single benefit of the Purple Line.

And to drive her point home, the reporter brings evidence to the table about the destructiveness of rail in a campus environment. Years of disruptive construction were followed by a divided campus and pedestrian fence corrals at the University of Minnesota, she says. The implication is that the “electric train” there has ruined the aesthetic quality and the pedestrian mobility of the campus.

But there’s one problem with this argument: Minnesota’s Central Corridor, which will link Minneapolis and Saint Paul, hasn’t opened yet. In fact, construction only started a few months ago and hasn’t even reached the University of Minnesota.

The fact of the matter is that rail can peacefully coexist in campus and urban environments. Streetcars cross a pedestrian plaza at Portland State University and the University of Pennsylvania has several trolley lines nearby.

The University of Maryland will benefit greatly from this investment. Students, faculty, and staff will see improved access to the region. And the elimination of cars from Campus Drive (a part the Purple Line project) will actually improve pedestrian safety in the center of campus.

Of course, the reporter could have a point. In the video below, watch normally orderly Germans flee from a careening tram in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.

Update: the Diamondback has published an updated article.