US DOT awards funding for Maryland Purple Line Project

The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced a US$900 million federal grant agreement for the Maryland Purple Line Light Rail Project. The light rail line will make travel across Montgomery and Prince George’s counties faster and more reliable, improving access to major business and activity centres in the state’s most populated counties. The 16.2-mile Maryland Purple Line will connect major activity centres in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma-Langley Park, College
August 29, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The 324 US Department of Transportation’s 2023 Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced a US$900 million federal grant agreement for the Maryland Purple Line Light Rail Project. The light rail line will make travel across Montgomery and Prince George’s counties faster and more reliable, improving access to major business and activity centres in the state’s most populated counties.

The 16.2-mile Maryland Purple Line will connect major activity centres in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma-Langley Park, College Park, and New Carrollton to three Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority rail lines, all three Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC) rail lines and 2008 Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor line. Although the project will provide direct connections with Metrorail and MARC, it will remain physically and operationally separate. When completed, the line will make suburb-to-suburb cross-county travel easier and faster.

The project includes the construction of 21 stations, two vehicle and maintenance storage yards with shop facilities, and the procurement of 25 articulated light-rail vehicles.

In addition to the funding from FTA’s Capital Investment Grants Program, in June 2016 US DOT announced a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan of US$874.6 million to Purple Line Transit Partners for construction of the Maryland Purple Line.

Purple Line Transit Partners to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 16.2-mile light rail system. MDOT will be the owner of the project and its selected private partner, Purple Line Transit Partners, will implement the project on a design-build-finance-operate-maintain basis.

Related Content

  • May 11, 2012
    Funding shortfall for US Interstate upgrades
    Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str
    Read More
  • February 2, 2012
    Economic crisis needs non-partisan perspectives to stimulate growth
    Kary Witt, President of the IBTTA and Pat Jones, Executive Director and CEO, talk about the need to put aside partisan perspectives in order to deal with the current economic crisis
    Read More
  • February 20, 2019
    US shutdown: transport bore the brunt
    The longest-ever shutdown in US government history may be over – but it has had an impact on transportation infrastructure, says Mary Scott Nabers of Strategic Partnerships The impact of the longest government shutdown in history has spread far beyond government workers and their families. It is difficult to find any business, school, hospital, city, county, college, university or local government organisation that has not suffered as a result of the shutdown. The negative impact on retail establishments
    Read More
  • September 5, 2014
    MDOT unveils I-94 truck parking information and management system
    The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has launched its I-94 truck parking information and management system (TPIMS), a system that assesses truck parking availability along the I-94 corridor in southwest Michigan and delivers real-time parking availability information to truck drivers. The project is federally funded under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Truck Parking Facilities Discretionary Grants Program.
    Read More

Highlighted Content