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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Econolite into final stage of smart signal project
    June 5, 2018
    Econolite has announced here at ITS America Detroit that the company has nearly completed the traffic signal modernisation upgrade of 300 intersections along 11 corridors in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The “Smart Signal” project is part of the County’s infrastructure modernisation programme to enhance the region’s mobility, economic security and sustainability. A major smart signal upgrade along US-1 TransitWay corridor is already demonstrating improved bus route efficiency, on-time arrivals, but most impo
    Read More
  • Maryland deployment for Vitronic Lidar
    September 2, 2022
    Conduent contract will see 90 Poliscan FM1 speed monitoring systems installed this month
    Read More
  • What are AVs doing in rural Ohio?
    March 29, 2023
    Autonomous vehicle pilots so far have been typically sighted in urban areas. But researchers in rural regions of Ohio are now trying to find out exactly what benefits they could bring to the countryside
    Read More
  • US driving data fuels calls for highway investment
    September 1, 2014
    New estimates released by the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show that American driving between July 2013 and June 2014 is at levels not seen since 2008, fuelling calls for greater investment in highways that must bear growing volumes of traffic.
    Read More

Highlighted Content