Councilmember Glass Voices Frustration Over Purple Line Construction ‘Mess’

Councilmember Evan Glass expressed frustration Sunday over the construction of Maryland’s Purple Line, which faces delays and uncertainties on completion.  

I’ve grown very frustrated with the construction of the Purple Line and the stonewalling by the governor’s administration and private contractors regarding budgets, timelines and schedules. ⁰https://t.co/UIXKupfttP

— Evan Glass (@EvanMGlass) July 19, 2020

“I’ve grown very frustrated with the construction of the Purple Line and the stonewalling by the governor’s administration and private contractors regarding budgets, timelines and schedules,” Councilmember Glass said in a tweet Sunday. 

“I will be the first in line to ride this much needed transit project, which will expand public transit and expand economic opportunity to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.” 

If and when it’s completed, the Purple Line will offer a 16-mile light rail line through the suburbs of Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park and New Carrollton, according to the project’s official website. 

The Purple Line will also connect MARC, Amtrak and local bus services across the Washington area. 

But the project is on the brink of collapsing if no one can agree on who will pay $755 million in overrun costs, according to Katherine Shaver of The Washington Post. 

Unless construction is accelerated, the Purple Line will begin running in late 2024 instead of its originally planned March 2022 debut, Shaver stated in a recent Post article. 

Much of the Purple Line’s construction delays stem from its funding through a public-private partnership, the second transit project in the country to include private financing.

Councilmember Glass also pointed to Gov. Larry Hogan’s role in the project’s delays. “But first we need the governor to fix the mess that he created with this public private partnership,” Glass tweeted. 

Gov. Hogan originally opposed the Purple Line due to high costs, but he eventually agreed after heavy lobbying from Washington’s business community, according to Shaver. 

For more information about the Purple Line, visit www.purplelinemd.com/.

About Shauneen Miranda

Shauneen Miranda was an intern at Montgomery Community Media during the summer of 2020 while she was studying journalism with a concentration in sociology at the University of Maryland.

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