By the Numbers: Purple Line Projections

Map It:  Bethesda   College Park   New Carrollton   Silver Spring 

AT AN OPEN HOUSE in Silver Spring last night, transportation officials with the Maryland state government presented ridership projections and other statistics for the long-proposed Purple Line, a 16-mile mass-transit corridor that would link Bethesda and New Carrollton via Silver Spring and College Park. At issue is what form the proposed line could take: light rail, rapid-transit bus or traditional bus service.

Let's take a look at state's findings and projections by the numbers ...

» 47,000: The number of riders a Purple Line light-rail link would attract per day. As The Post's William Wan reports, that figure compares "favorably with similar transit projects being created throughout the country, bolstering Maryland's case for federal money needed to build the $1.8 billion line, state officials said."
» 45,000: The number of riders a Purple Line bus-rapid-transit link would attract per day.
» 29,000: The number of riders a traditional limited bus line along the Purple Line route would attract per day. That's the lowest projected ridership for the Purple Line.
» 46: The number of minutes it would take to ride the Purple Line end to end, according to one alignment option. Another alignment would result in a 73-minute ride.

» "Purple Line Could Draw 47,000 Riders a Year, Officials Say" [WaPo]
» "The Purple Line" [MTA Maryland]

Cross section of a possible University Boulevard alignment courtesy MTA Maryland