The Washington Post reports that eight students wrote the University of Maryland administration to support the Purple Line:
In an April 25 letter, eight students urged university President C.D. Mote Jr. to "become an outright champion" of the proposed Purple Line, saying the school's "relative silence on the project is casting an unneeded shadow of uncertainty on the planning process." Tunneling a train beneath the College Park campus, as administration officials have urged, could make it prohibitively expensive, the students said.However, much like opponents of the above-ground light rail elsewhere, administration officials would much prefer an underground version of the Purple Line:
They asked university officials to avoid "mistakes" made with Metro's Green Line. The College Park station was built almost a mile from the campus of 35,000 students, requiring an inconvenient walk or shuttle bus ride. The letter was copied to 30 federal, state and local political leaders.
Henry Kay, the MTA's deputy administrator for planning and engineering, said state officials agree that an aboveground line would be more viable. A one-mile tunnel beneath the campus would cost roughly $200 million to $300 million, about 10 times the cost of a one-mile aboveground line, he said.
Kay said university officials have long favored an underground system out of concern for pedestrian safety along busy Campus Drive, the school's main road, where a transit line probably would run. Although the exact location of a campus station hasn't been determined, Kay said, it probably would be near the campus center.
"We're working to convince them it can be built and operated safely," Kay said. "We've seen a lot of examples elsewhere where light rail or buses operate through campuses in a very safe way."
The university "is a major constituency along the line," he said. "We're not going to implement this project over their objections."
Daddio said the students were responding to a letter that J. Frank Brewer, interim vice president for administrative affairs, sent to state officials in late March, stating that "the university does not see 'at grade' [light-rail transit] as an option in the center of our campus."
The Diamondback reports that the University's lack of support for the light rail could be the final blow to the project:
But with a price tag that could exceed $1 billion, questions remain about whether it will receive the necessary federal funding.Remember that there isn't even a ridership study that validates the idea of building the light rail above ground. The politics of this proposal increasingly look bad. Its political support is wide but not very deep. Councilman Steve Silverman made the Purple Line the centerpiece of his unsuccessful well-funded county executive bid last year. Gov. Martin O'Malley supports funding the Purple Line but he has made the ICC his first priority and also supports the Baltimore Red Line as well as the Upcounty Corridor Cities light rail which have far less opposition. Our green governor may also be reluctant to tear down thousands of trees along the existing trail--a necessary part of the project. Did I forget to mention that the state faces a $1.5 billion deficit?Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George's and Anne Arundel) said the university's uncertain stance could quash the Purple Line's growing support.
While the university has no official veto on the transit-way, Peña-Melnyk said its clout has made its blessing essential to push similar projects through local bureaucracies. In the past, the university's political pull has won millions of state dollars for conducting traffic studies and building new academic buildings.
"Perhaps we could go forward without them, but it's better to act with honey than vinegar," she said. "The university doesn't have a vote, but any project needs consensus."
If the school opposed the plan, "that will kill the project," Peña-Melnyk said. "Dr. Mote needs to retract that letter."
Associate Vice President for Facilities Management Frank Brewer said the university did not oppose the Purple Line, but rather any alignment that might run it at ground level through Campus Drive.
"It's a safety concern," he said. "If you've been at Campus Drive in the middle of the day, it's just the most congested place in the world as it is. The Purple Line would just add conflict."
Instead, Brewer proposed an underground track or routes that would skirt the campus periphery.
But Madden said cost constraints forced the MTA to rule out both options long ago. MTA traffic monitors have already scouted the road, and will release a traffic study to clarify the Purple Line's potential impact this summer.
