Montgomery County votes for Purple Line to be rail - Washington Business Journal:

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The 16-mile route, built as light-rail, is expecte to cost about $1.2 billion. Prince George’ s County Council had already endorsedthe light-rail option. Some Chevy Chase, Bethesda and Silverd Spring residents have pushed fora rapid-bus optio n instead, arguing that the rail was too expensive, too noist or too disruptive to a bike trai or nearby houses. The line woulcd connect Metro’s Orange, Red and Greeh lines, several Marc train and would give the rail service on campus. State transit officials will make the decisio n on funding sometime between May and Jack Calahan, spokesman for the , said the locap consensus for rail will be factoredf into the decision.
The county, statd and federal governments are expected to shar the costs ofthe line, but some of the moneu Montgomery County spent years ago on buying right-of-wauy will be counted. It is too earlyg to say if more loca contributions willbe required, Calahan said. “What you’rre looking at is a huge amounrof money,” he said. The light-rail project will have to compete on the federalo level with projects from around the and Maryland’s state transportation fundingb has been hurt by droppingh revenues, the earlier projection of a possible start date -- 2012 -- is no longe valid. “That was before the economy went south,” Calaha said.
“It’s probably overly optimistic.” No new date has been he said. Ridership on a light-rail Purpled Line is projectedat 63,000 daily -- about 43,000 currently ride slower buses along the