Community Corner

New MD Transportation Secretary Dishes on Purple Line, CCT

Jim Smith spoke with WTOP about ways to ease traffic in Montgomery County.

By Patch Editor Whitney Teal

Maryland’s new transportation chief already is seeing red—and purple. Jim Smith—the former Baltimore County Executive turned Maryland Transportation Secretary, recently vowed support for big-ticket state transportation projects, including Baltimore’s Red Line and Montgomery County’s Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway.

"There's no one silver bullet to solve traffic problems for everyone," Smith told WTOP. Both Montgomery County transit projects would benefit everyone in the region, he said.

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The Purple Line, a proposed 16-mile light rail system connecting Bethesda to New Carrollton, was promised $280 million from the state’s gas tax hike revenue, but private dollars still are needed to cover the $2 billion price tag.

The CCT, a rapid-bus system, will get $100 million in gas tax revenue. The first phase of the transitway, to be completed in 2020, would feature nine stations between the Shady Grove Metro station and MARC’s Metropolitan Grove Station, Capital News Service reported.

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"The top thing I want to get accomplished in my tenure is to get those many, many projects that have been studied and designed, that have been in the queue for several years, and get them in the field and constructed," Smith told WTOP.

Click here to read more of Smith’s interview with WTOP.


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