Capital Crescent Trail and the Purple Line

From Marc Korman: On March 1st my fiancé and I braved the wind to go on a walking tour of the future Capital Crescent trail through Silver Spring and the proposed Purple Line alignment from Silver Spring to Bethesda.

The walk was led by Wayne Phyillaier of Silver Spring Trails and Webb Smedley of Purple Line NOW!. Among the trail users and other interested parties in attendance were Delegate Al Carr and his son Miles. The walk took on new meaning when the County Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee voted to appropriate $55 million for a new entrance to the Bethesda Metro that is envisioned as an eventual connection to a light rail Purple Line. The full Council will consider the funding in a few weeks. Previous articles on the varying options for the Purple Line have been well covered on MPW by David Lublin and others.

The first portion of the walk was from downtown Silver Spring until the Georgetown Branch Trail and the Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) connection at Lyttonsville. What many of us think of as the CCT in that area is actually the Georgetown Branch Trail, which has a number of at grade street crossings and does not have the enclosed feel of the rest of the CCT. As we walked through neighborhoods, CSX tracks, and County owned land originally acquired for roads, which were never built, the organizers tried to show us where the CCT was planned to go if funding was ever found.

Completion of the Capital Crescent Trail and construction of the Purple Line have become linked because to complete the trail as envisioned, land owned by the CSX railroad must be acquired. Many CCT supporters have lined up behind the Purple Line so that, as the County acquires CSX land for the Purple Line, they can also pick up land for the trail. Others, most notably www.savethetrail.org, oppose linking the Purple Line and the Capital Crescent trail because of the potential disruption to the trail that a light rail system would bring. When asked about the problematic effects light rail may have on the trail, the walk organizers discussed the ten foot buffer that would exist between the ten foot wide trail and the beginning of the Purple Line track. That buffer could be used for a safety barrier, as well as for green space. That does not really address the concern of many www.savethetrail.org supporters, who are actually home owners along the trail using trail preservation for political convenience when their real, and quite legitimate, concern seems to be preserving their yards.

The second half of the walk, on the existing Capital Crescent trail to Silver Spring, made it much easier to see the downside to the Purple Line, a project I generally support. There were many homes that would be adversely affected. Usually, when a noisy road or rail line is being built by someone’s house noise and safety concerns can both be met by building a large barrier. With a trail in the mix, large, concrete barriers are less of an option. A few issues that will need to be discussed to determine how adverse the effects are the level of noise light rail will actually create and the frequency of trains.

Another problem is that less savvy homeowners along the trail may not actually realize how large the right of way for the trail is, meaning they may be unclear on the potential effect it would have on them. In many places, the trail’s right of way is much wider than the trail itself currently is. For example, as the trail cuts through Columbia Country Club, the trail itself is perhaps ten feet across with a small foot or two buffer on each side, then black fences. These do not mark the actual right of way, which is actually a hundred feet across in that area. The golf course, as will be the case with many homes, may face even more land loss than it realizes.

I do not envy the job of planners who are trying to make a trail and a light rail line work in a tight space with lots of different interests. In various places trail and rail must cross major roads like Connecticut Avenue, crowd through the existing Wisconsin Avenue tunnel, and even cross each other. All of these variables involved a dizzying array of potential grade changes, crossing points, and other options that the walk organizers tried to discuss while we walked. This being Montgomery County, there were no shortage of questions from participants including concern about tree preservation to questions about the fate of the trestle that crosses Rock Creek and offers a beautiful view.

Despite the walk organizers having their own biases, the walk was enlightening even if it did not change my underlying support of light rail. Despite the tight space, I still believe that light rail will have better ridership than buses and can coexist with neighborhoods and the trail. Regardless of your view, I recommend keeping an eye on Silver Spring Trails because they plan to offer more walks in the future.