Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) was in elementary school when the state’s Purple Line — the 16-mile light rail that will connect parts of Montgomery County and Prince George’s County — was first conceived in the late ’80s. On Thursday, he and a pack of local and state officials laid the final tracks on the line, tapping the purple rail spikes in with purple hammers.
After a decades-long planning process dogged by resistance, the project broke ground in 2017 with an expected opening five years later. But delays for the project piled on due to hundred-million dollar contractor disputes, utility relocations and pandemic challenges. In 2023, a new lead contractor began working on construction sites that had sat abandoned for almost two years.
Now, the project is nearly $5 billion over initial estimates and five-and-a-half years behind schedule.
“A lot of people fumbled the ball,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) said at a news conference Thursday at the Silver Spring station construction site. He turned to Moore. “But you picked it up, and you and your team and all of Team Maryland are going to get it over the finish line.”
The Purple Line will open to the public, officials said, in late 2027 due to testing and safety requirements. It will arrive a decade after the project broke ground and amid a different economic picture. There are fewer commuters to downtown D.C. — especially for federal jobs — and more Maryland residents working remotely.
“Me and [Van Hollen] and some other people have been working on this so long, we had more hair and we were a lot younger,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said. “That’s a long time on the path to getting here, but I’m glad we’re here.”
The Purple Line will have 21 stops along a route that connects Bethesda with New Carrollton. Riding the full line one way will take between 10 and 15 minutes; cars are twice the length of a Metro car, reach up to 55 mph and hold up to 431 passengers. Most of the line has a dedicated lane at ground level, though some portions are elevated. (Though the project intersects with stops on WMATA’s red line, it is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration.)
Some officials point to the continued need for a line that connects the populous Maryland counties to one another without the need to drive or take a WMATA Metro line. Supporters say the Purple Line will contribute to walkable communities and business opportunities around stations.
“This project is important for economic empowerment, it’s important for our communities, it is important for a transportation quarter that will move people more efficiently and faster, it important for our environment,” Van Hollen said. “This was a great vision when it started. And today we are one big step closer to making it happen.”
Moore, Van Hollen, Elrich and others wore work boots and construction vests over their button-down shirts to pound in the last few tracks. For people who have worked on the rails for nearly a decade, Thursday was a chance to look back.
“It’s been cold some days, hot other days,” Superintendent Train Controller Greg Hinkleman said. “Frustrating some days. Great some days. It’s a little bit of everything out here. You can’t go 10 years on a project without seeing just about everything.”
The post The last bit of track, finally, is laid for the Purple Line appeared first on Washington Post.
