98-621: The Purple Line is a 16.2-mile (26.1 km) light rail line being built to link several Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. : Bethesda , Silver Spring , College Park , and New Carrollton . Currently slated to open in late 2027, the line will also enable riders to move between the Maryland branches of the Red , Green , and Orange lines of the Washington Metro without riding into central Washington, and between all three lines of
196-627: A consortium headed by Fluor Enterprises won the $ 5.6 billion contract to design and build the Purple Line, then to operate and maintain it for 36 years. Construction began in August 2017. Work halted in September 2020, when the consortium withdrew from the contract, citing mounting delays and disputes with the state government. The project had already consumed $ 1.1 billion of the anticipated $ 2 billion construction cost. A new general contractor
294-724: A "light rail" vehicle (it is a heavy rail vehicle), and is only included for comparison purposes. Low-floor LRVs have the advantage of a low-floor design, allowing them to load passengers directly from low-rise platforms that can be little more than raised curbs. High-floor light rail systems also exist, featuring larger stations. Historically, the track gauge has had considerable variations, with narrow gauge common in many early systems. However, most light rail systems are now standard gauge . Older standard-gauge vehicles could not negotiate sharp turns as easily as narrow-gauge ones, but modern light rail systems achieve tighter turning radii by using articulated cars . An important advantage of
392-548: A $ 10 billion, 30-mile (48 km) line from National Harbor to Montgomery Mall . In 1987, after CSX expressed a desire to abandon the Georgetown Branch rail line, Maryland leaders immediately started planning to repurpose it for transit and a hiking trail. The idea of adapting the railroad for a transit line dated back at least as far as 1970, when such a use was included in the October 1970 Master Plan for
490-488: A Purple Line that would "encircle Washington, D.C." and "connect existing suburban metro lines." Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown , while campaigning in 2006 , similarly stated that he would "like to see the Purple Line go from Bethesda to across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge ," adding, "Let's swing that boy all the way around" (a reference to having the Purple Line circle through Virginia and back to
588-458: A bus, there will be even more capacity when there is a combination of cars and light rail. Table 3 shows an example of peak passenger capacity. The cost of light rail construction varies widely, largely depending on the amount of tunneling and elevated structures required. A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $ 15 million to over $ 100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system
686-403: A chaotic breakdown inflow and a dramatic drop in speed (a traffic jam ) if they exceed about 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane (each car roughly two seconds behind another). Since most people who drive to work or on business trips do so alone, studies show that the average car occupancy on many roads carrying commuters is only about 1.5 people per car during the high-demand rush hour periods of
784-1142: A common right-of-way (however, Link converted to full separation in 2019). Some systems, such as the AirTrain JFK in New York City, the DLR in London, and Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur , have dispensed with the need for an operator. The Vancouver SkyTrain was an early adopter of driverless vehicles, while the Toronto Scarborough rapid transit operated the same trains as Vancouver, but used drivers. In most discussions and comparisons, these specialized systems are generally not considered light rail but as light metro systems. Around Karlsruhe , Kassel , and Saarbrücken in Germany, dual-voltage light rail trains partly use mainline railroad tracks, sharing these tracks with heavy rail trains. In
882-416: A light rail train may have three to four cars of much larger capacity in one train under the control of one driver, or no driver at all in fully automated systems, increasing the labor costs of BRT systems compared to LRT systems. BRT systems are also usually less fuel-efficient as they use non-electrified vehicles. The peak passenger capacity per lane per hour depends on which types of vehicles are allowed on
980-435: A live rail. In outer areas, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires . The Bordeaux power system costs about three times as much as a conventional overhead wire system and took 24 months to achieve acceptable levels of reliability, requiring the replacement of all the main cables and power supplies. Operating and maintenance costs of the innovative power system still remain high. However, despite numerous service outages,
1078-543: A longer distance. Light rail cars are often coupled into multiple units of two to four cars. Light rail systems may also exhibit attributes of heavy rail systems, including having downtown subways, as in San Francisco and Seattle . Light rail is designed to address a gap in interurban transportation between heavy rail and bus services, carrying high passenger numbers more quickly than local buses and more cheaply than heavy rail. It serves corridors in which heavy rail
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#17327873065471176-642: A more diverse range of design characteristics than LRT, depending on the demand and constraints that exist, and BRT using dedicated lanes can have a theoretical capacity of over 30,000 passengers per hour per direction (for example, the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit system operates up to 350 buses per hour per direction). For the effective operation of a bus or BRT system, buses must have priority at traffic lights and have their dedicated lanes, especially as bus frequencies exceed 30 buses per hour per direction. The higher theoretical of BRT relates to
1274-407: A result, has many of the operating characteristics of a metro system rather than a light rail system. A capacity of 1,350 passengers per train is more similar to the heavy rail than light rail. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is an alternative to LRT and many planning studies undertake a comparison of each mode when considering appropriate investments in transit corridor development. BRT systems can exhibit
1372-534: A top speed of 55–71.5 miles per hour (88.51–115.1 km/h) depending on the system, while the trains on the all-underground Montreal Metro can only reach a top speed of 72 kilometres per hour (44.74 mph). LACMTA light rail vehicles have higher top and average speeds than Montreal Metro or New York City Subway trains. Many light rail systems—even fairly old ones—have a combination of both on- and off-road sections. In some countries (especially in Europe), only
1470-481: A tramway, a light metro, and, in a narrow sense, rapid transit. This is especially common in the United States, where there is not a popularly perceived distinction between these different types of urban rail systems. The development of technology for low-floor and catenary-free trams facilitates the construction of such mixed systems with only short and shallow underground sections below critical intersections as
1568-470: Is a generic international English phrase for types of rail systems using modern streetcars/trams, which means more or less the same thing throughout the English-speaking world . Light rail systems can range from trams runnig in streets along with other traffic, to semi-metro systems having portions of grade separated track. People movers are even "lighter", in terms of capacity. Monorail
1666-575: Is a separate technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. The use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English . The word tram , for instance, is generally used in the UK and many former British colonies to refer to what is known in North America as a streetcar , but in North America tram can instead refer to an aerial tramway , or, in
1764-602: Is a significant amount of overlap between the technologies; similar rolling stock may be used for either, and it is common to classify streetcars or trams as a subcategory of light rail rather than as a distinct type of transportation. However, some distinctions can be made, though systems may combine elements of both. Low-floor light rail lines tend to follow a reserved right-of-way and with trains receiving priority at intersections, and tend not to operate in mixed traffic, enabling higher operating speeds. Light rail lines tend to have less frequent stops than tramways, and operate over
1862-581: Is adjacent to the Capital Beltway . Beneath the Metro station platform, a waiting room serves Amtrak's Northeast Regional , Vermonter , and Palmetto trains, as well as MARC's Penn Line trains. The New Carrollton Rail Yard is nearby. Greyhound , a nationwide intercity bus company, also stops at the station on routes serving Richmond , Washington , Philadelphia , New York City , Pittsburgh , and points beyond. The New Carrollton station
1960-563: Is by far the most expensive in the US, at $ 179 million per mile, since it includes extensive tunneling in poor soil conditions, elevated sections, and stations as deep as 180 feet (55 m) below ground level. This results in costs more typical of subways or rapid transit systems than light rail. At the other end of the scale, four systems (Baltimore, Maryland; Camden, New Jersey; Sacramento, California; and Salt Lake City, Utah) incurred construction costs of less than $ 20 million per mile. Over
2058-426: Is especially important for wheelchair access, as narrower gauges (e.g. metre gauge) can make it challenging or impossible to pass the tram's wheels. Furthermore, standard-gauge rolling stock can be switched between networks either temporarily or permanently, and both newly built and used standard-gauge rolling stock tends to be cheaper to buy, as more companies offer such vehicles. Overhead lines supply electricity to
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#17327873065472156-502: Is expensive. Similarly, the most expensive US highway expansion project was the " Big Dig " in Boston, Massachusetts, which cost $ 200 million per lane mile for a total cost of $ 14.6 billion. A light rail track can carry up to 20,000 people per hour as compared with 2,000–2,200 vehicles per hour for one freeway lane. For example, in Boston and San Francisco, light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour, respectively, in
2254-575: Is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail. A system described as a light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called "light rail" are very similar to rapid transit ; in recent years, new terms such as light metro have been used to describe these medium-capacity systems. Some "light rail" systems, such as Sprinter , bear little similarity to urban rail, and could alternatively be classified as commuter rail or even inter-city rail. In
2352-559: Is impractical. Light metro systems are essentially hybrids of light rail and rapid transit. Metro trains are larger and faster than light rail trains, with stops being further apart. Many systems have mixed characteristics. Indeed, with proper engineering, a rail line could run along a street, then go underground, and then run along an elevated viaduct. For example, the Los Angeles Metro Rail 's A Line "light rail" has sections that could alternatively be described as
2450-484: Is one of the highest capacity ones, having been upgraded in a series of expansions to handle 40,000 passengers per hour per direction, and having carried as many as 582,989 passengers in a single day on its Line 1 . It achieves this volume by running four-car trains with a capacity of up to 1,350 passengers each at a frequency of up to 30 trains per hour. However, the Manila light rail system has full grade separation and as
2548-407: Is similar to that of a traditional tram, while operating at a higher capacity and speed, often on an exclusive right-of-way. In broader use, it includes tram-like operations mostly on streets. A few light rail networks have characteristics closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail , yet only when these systems are fully grade-separated are they referred to as light metros . The term light rail
2646-446: Is the third station in the area to serve rail traffic. The first station, Lanham , 0.75 miles (1.21 km) north of the current station, opened in the 1870s. By the late 1960s, it consisted of a small shelter and an asphalt platform served by a few Penn Central (later Conrail ) commuter trains between Washington and Baltimore. The second, Capital Beltway station , sat just inside the Capital Beltway . Opened on March 16, 1970, it
2744-532: The Columbia Country Club . From 2003 to 2006, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich changed the proposed mode of transportation from light rail to bus rapid transit . Legal attempts to thwart the line continued even after construction had begun; but in December 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Purple Line construction could continue despite these objections. In 2016,
2842-542: The Cádiz TramBahia , where trams share track with commuter and long-distance trains from the main terminus in the city and curve off to serve cities without a railway connection. Some of the issues involved in such schemes are: There is a history of what would now be considered light rail vehicles operating on heavy rail rapid transit tracks in the US, especially in the case of interurban streetcars . Notable examples are Lehigh Valley Transit trains running on
2940-758: The London Underground and the New York City Subway . Conventional rail technologies including high-speed , freight, commuter , and rapid transit urban transit systems are considered "heavy rail". The main difference between light rail and heavy rail rapid transit is the ability for a light rail vehicle to operate in mixed traffic if the routing requires it. The world's first electric tram operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg , Russia , invented and operated on an experimental basis by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. The first tramway
3038-748: The MARC commuter rail system. The project is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), an agency of the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), and not the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which operates Metro. Throughout its decades-long planning process, the project was dogged by resistance, particularly from residents of the upscale community of Chevy Chase and members of
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3136-637: The Netherlands , this concept was first applied on the RijnGouweLijn . This allows commuters to ride directly into the city center, rather than taking a mainline train only as far as a central station and then having to change to a tram. In France, similar tram-trains are planned for Paris, Mulhouse , and Strasbourg ; further projects exist. In some cases, tram trains use previously abandoned or lightly used heavy rail lines in addition to or instead of still in use mainline tracks. In 2022, Spain opened
3234-874: The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa, Ontario , Canada, the River Line in New Jersey , United States, and the Sprinter in California , United States, which use diesel multiple unit (DMU) cars. Light rail is different from the British English term light railway , long-used to distinguish railway operations carried out under a less rigorous set of regulations using lighter equipment at lower speeds from mainline railways. Light rail
3332-703: The Philadelphia and Western Railroad high-speed third rail line (now the Norristown High-Speed Line ). Such arrangements are almost impossible now, due to the Federal Railroad Administration refusing (for crash safety reasons) to allow non-FRA compliant railcars (i.e., subway and light rail vehicles) to run on the same tracks at the same times as compliant railcars, which includes locomotives and standard railroad passenger and freight equipment. Notable exceptions in
3430-461: The Potomac River ) is built to carry a heavy or light rail line. Suggested stops along this proposed Purple Line expansion include: The light rail vehicles designed to run on the Purple Line are being built by CAF at their Elmira, New York , facility. Each train is 140 feet (43 m) long, consists of 5 modules, and can carry up to 431 passengers (seated plus standing). CAF began testing
3528-530: The medians of roads . If run in streets , trains are usually limited by city block lengths to about four 180-passenger vehicles (720 passengers). Operating on two-minute headways using traffic signal progression, a well-designed two-track system can handle up to 30 trains per hour per track, achieving peak rates of over 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. More advanced systems with separate rights-of-way using moving block signaling can exceed 25,000 passengers per hour per track. Most light rail systems in
3626-647: The "Beltway Purple Line" proposal had been abandoned as too costly and the name was attached to the Bethesda to New Carrollton line. Robert Flanagan , the Maryland State Secretary of Transportation under Governor Robert Ehrlich , merged the Purple Line proposal with the Georgetown Branch Light Rail Transit (GBLRT) line. The GBLRT was proposed as a light rail transit line from Silver Spring westward, following
3724-459: The "Locally Preferred Alternative" route approved by Governor Martin O'Malley on August 9, 2009: Although the Purple Line is a 16-mile (28.8-km) east–west line between Bethesda and New Carrollton, there have been several proposals to expand the line further into Maryland or to mirror the Capital Beltway as a loop around the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The Sierra Club has argued for
3822-624: The 1970s was proven to have been a technical failure by the following decade. After World War II, the Germans retained many of their streetcar networks and evolved them into model light rail systems ( Stadtbahnen ). With the exception of Hamburg , all large and most medium-sized German cities maintain light rail networks. The concept of a "limited tramway" was proposed by American transport planner H. Dean Quinby in 1962. Quinby distinguished this new concept in rail transportation from historic streetcar or tram systems as: The term light rail transit
3920-473: The 64-mile (103 km) Capital Beltway . This would have served as a "ring" line, connecting suburb to suburb and complementing the existing Metro lines, which radiate from Washington. ( See Rapid transit#Network topologies .) In 1998, the Beltway Purple Line received considerable political support from Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan and Governor Parris Glendening , which was
4018-548: The Bethesda-Chevy Chase Planning Area. Montgomery County purchased its portion of the railroad right-of-way from CSX in 1988 and in 1989 budgeted $ 107 million to build a trolley between Bethesda and Silver Spring and a pair of trails between Silver Spring and the District. Eventually, this proposal came known as the "Inner Purple Line" to distinguish it from the "Beltway Purple Line". By 2001,
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4116-777: The Blue Plus service. The service ended on May 7, 2023 with the reopening of the Yellow Line . The Purple Line light rail system will begin at New Carrollton and run west to Bethesda . The line will connect to Washington Metro stations on the Red and Green lines. The system is under construction as of 2022 and is scheduled to open in 2027. At New Carrollton, the Northeast Corridor consists of three tracks. The westernmost two tracks (Tracks 2 and 3) have an island platform between them, with Track 1 having no platform. To
4214-495: The French city of Bordeaux , the tramway network is powered by a third rail in the city center, where the tracks are not always segregated from pedestrians and cars. The third rail (actually two closely spaced rails) is placed in the middle of the track and divided into eight-metre sections, each of which is powered only while it is completely covered by a tram. This minimizes the risk of a person or animal coming into contact with
4312-649: The MARC Penn Line ) began stopping at Capital Beltway, replacing stops at Lanham and Landover. On October 30, 1983, Amtrak and AMDOT moved from Capital Beltway to a new island platform and waiting room at New Carrollton station. Until 2003, some Acela Express trains stopped at New Carrollton. In October 2015, the Palmetto began stopping in New Carrollton. In May 2018, Metro announced an extensive renovation of platforms at twenty stations across
4410-672: The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the Purple Line light rail project for inclusion into the region's Constrained Long-Range Transportation Plan. Planners proposed to use existing Washington Metro stations and to accept the WMATA's SmarTrip farecard. Metro's 2008 annual report envisioned that the Purple Line would be fully integrated with the existing Washington Metro transit system by 2030. The proposed project drew support and opposition in
4508-508: The Purple Line for $ 3.3 billion over 36 years, with service to start in late 2022. On April 6, 2016, the Maryland Board of Public Works (composed of Hogan, State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp , and State Comptroller Peter Franchot ) unanimously approved the contract. The $ 5.6 billion contract is 876 pages long and, according to The Washington Post is "believed to be the most expensive government contract ever in Maryland" and "one of
4606-486: The Purple Line. Hogan responded that Leon's residence at the Columbia Country Club, a leading opponent of the line, represented a conflict of interest. A federal funding agreement cannot be signed without the reinstatement of the environmental approval, and Maryland had said it could not afford to build the Purple Line without sufficient federal funding. On August 21, 2017, despite the ongoing court case over
4704-461: The Purple Line. In May 2008, it was projected that the Purple Line would have about 68,000 daily trips. A draft environmental impact study was issued on October 20, 2008. On December 22, 2008, Montgomery County planners endorsed building a light rail line rather than a bus line. On January 15, 2009, the county planning board also endorsed the light rail option, and County Executive Isiah Leggett has also expressed support. On October 21, 2009, members of
4802-662: The US are the NJ Transit River Line from Camden to Trenton and Austin's Capital MetroRail , which have received exemptions to the provision that light rail operations occur only during daytime hours and Conrail freight service only at night, with several hours separating one operation from the other. The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa also has freight service at certain hours. With its mix of right-of-way types and train control technologies, LRT offers
4900-455: The US as a whole, excluding Seattle, new light rail construction costs average about $ 35 million per mile. By comparison, a freeway lane expansion typically costs $ 1.0 million to $ 8.5 million per lane mile for two directions, with an average of $ 2.3 million. However, freeways are frequently built in suburbs or rural areas, whereas light rail tends to be concentrated in urban areas, where right of way and property acquisition
4998-666: The United States and in North America . In Britain, modern light rail systems began to appear in the 1980s, starting with the Tyne and Wear Metro from 1980 and followed by the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London in 1987, continuing into the 1990s including the establishment of the Manchester Metrolink in 1992 and the Sheffield Supertram from 1994. Due to varying definitions, it
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#17327873065475096-590: The United States are limited by demand rather than capacity (by and large, most American LRT systems carry fewer than 4,000 persons per hour per direction), but Boston's and San Francisco's light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour per track during rush hour. Elsewhere in North America, the Calgary C-Train and Monterrey Metro have higher light rail ridership than Boston or San Francisco. Systems outside North America often have much higher passenger volumes. The Manila Light Rail Transit System
5194-472: The United States, "light rail" has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. Light rail corridors may constitute a fully segregated corridor, a dedicated right-of-way on a street, an on-street corridor shared with other traffic, a corridor shared with other public transport, or a corridor shared with pedestrians. The most difficult distinction to draw is that between low-floor light rail and streetcar or tram systems. There
5292-415: The ability of buses to travel closer to each other than rail vehicles and their ability to overtake each other at designated locations allowing express services to bypass those that have stopped at stations. However, to achieve capacities this high, BRT station footprints need to be significantly larger than a typical LRT station. In terms of cost of operation, each bus vehicle requires a single driver, whereas
5390-435: The build-and-operate cost to $ 9.4 billion. The expected opening date was delayed to May 2027, more than five years later than first planned. The officials said the changes were due to the change of contractor, to inflation, and to labor shortages. In March 2024, MTA officials asked the state's Board of Public Works to approve another $ 425 million for the project. The extra money would go toward construction costs and also extend
5488-586: The cars in 2020. Fabrication of all 130 modular car shells at the CAF facility in Spain was completed in June 2021. 26 of the 28 trains have been assembled as of February 2023. Light rail Light rail (or light rail transit , abbreviated to LRT ) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology while also having some features from heavy rapid transit . The term
5586-866: The case of the Disney amusement parks , even a land train . (The usual British term for an aerial tramway is cable car , which in the US usually refers to a ground-level car pulled along by subterranean cables .) The word trolley is often used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States but is usually taken to mean a cart, particularly a shopping cart, in the UK and elsewhere. Many North American transportation planners reserve streetcar for traditional vehicles that operate exclusively in mixed traffic on city streets, while they use light rail to refer to more modern vehicles operating mostly in exclusive rights of way, since they may operate both side-by-side targeted at different passenger groups. The difference between British English and American English terminology arose in
5684-421: The closure of Glasgow Corporation Tramways (one of the largest in Europe) in 1962. Although some traditional trolley or tram systems continued to exist in San Francisco and elsewhere, the term "light rail" has come to mean a different type of rail system as modern light rail technology has primarily post-WWII West German origins. An attempt by Boeing Vertol to introduce a new American light rail vehicle in
5782-513: The color-named lines of the Washington Metro system. The new name did not catch on; several media outlets and most citizens continued to refer to the "Purple Line". In 2007, Governor Martin O'Malley and Secretary of Transportation John Porcari reverted to "Purple Line". In January 2008, the O'Malley administration allocated $ 100 million within a six-year capital budget to complete design documents for state approval and funding of
5880-538: The community: In June 2015, the Purple Line was approved by Governor Larry Hogan , who opposed the project while campaigning in 2014. Hogan cancelled its sister project, the Baltimore Red Line , citing excessive costs, and reduced the state's contribution to the Purple Line from $ 700 million to $ 168 million, putting the difference toward highway construction. To make up the difference, Prince George's and Montgomery counties would contribute more money and
5978-430: The contract to finish construction would go to Maryland Transit Solutions: a joint venture of Dragados USA and OHL USA , both American subsidiaries of major Spanish construction firms. The contract was ultimately set at $ 2.3 billion, bringing total construction costs to $ 3.4 billion, some $ 1.46 billion over the 2016 plan. As 2022 opened, state officials said the line would open in fall 2026. The new construction contract
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#17327873065476076-485: The contract to operate the line to 2057. The request would boost the total cost to build and operate the line to about $ 9.53 billion, about $ 4 billion over the initial 2016 budget of $ 5.6 billion. It was the second-largest request for extra funds, after the 2022 addition. They also said the Purple Line was now forecast to open in late 2027. The planned rail line will connect the existing Metro, MARC commuter rail , and Amtrak stations at: The following stations are part of
6174-415: The day. This combination of factors limits roads carrying only automobile commuters to a maximum observed capacity of about 3,000 passengers per hour per lane. The problem can be mitigated by introducing high-occupancy vehicle ( HOV ) lanes and ride-sharing programs, but in most cases, policymakers have chosen to add more lanes to the roads, despite a small risk that in unfavorable situations an extension of
6272-755: The direct translation, which is city rail (the Norwegian term, by bane , means the same). However, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of "intended for light loads and fast movement", rather than referring to physical weight. The infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), in its Glossary of Transit Terminology, defines light rail as: ...a mode of transit service (also called streetcar, tramway, or trolley) operating passenger rail cars singly (or in short, usually two-car or three-car, trains) on fixed rails in
6370-582: The east of the Amtrak platform is the Metro platform, serving the Orange Line . Bus loops and parking lots are located on both sides of the rail line. The station has entrances at Harkins Road and Ellin Road, and Garden City Drive near U.S. Route 50 , and Exit 19 on Interstate 495 . Long-term plans for the New Carrollton station include adding a second island platform (providing access to Track 1) and adding
6468-447: The environmental analysis, $ 900 million of federal funding was granted for the light rail project. On December 19, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the Purple Line, stating that declining ridership on the Washington Metro system does not require Maryland to complete a new environmental study for the Purple Line. This federal appeals court ruling allowed for construction to continue and effectively ended
6566-438: The estimated cost to build the line and operate it through 2057 was $ 9.53 billion, some $ 4 billion over the initial 2016 budget of $ 5.6 billion. Train service is expected to begin in December 2027. The "Purple Line" has been the name of two different transit proposals. In 1994, John J. Corley Jr., an architect with Harry Weese Associates (which designed the Washington Metro system) proposed a multibillion-dollar Metro line around
6664-597: The former Georgetown Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , now a short CSX siding and the Capital Crescent Trail , to Bethesda . In March 2003, the Ehrlich administration renamed the project the "Bi-County Transitway", reflecting a proposal by Ehrlich and Flanagan to use bus rapid transit instead of light rail , and because the name "Purple Line" seemed to suggest a new heavy-rail system like
6762-408: The frequency of train service would be reduced. The Purple Line was procured as a full design-build-finance-operate-maintain public–private partnership . On December 7, 2015, four teams composed of major American and international firms submitted their bids to realize the project: On March 2, 2016, Hogan announced that the state had chosen Purple Line Transit Partners to build, operate, and maintain
6860-578: The largest public-private partnerships on a U.S. transportation project" ever. The contract approval allowed the MTA to finalize $ 900 million in federal construction grants. In August 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon vacated the Purple Line's federal approval, ruling that the MTA and the Federal Transit Administration did not properly study whether Metro's maintenance issues and ridership decline would affect
6958-458: The late 19th century when Americans adopted the term "street railway", rather than "tramway", with the vehicles being called "streetcars" rather than "trams". Some have suggested that the Americans' preference for the term "street railway" at that time was influenced by German emigrants to the United States (who were more numerous than British immigrants in the industrialized Northeast), as it is
7056-524: The latter is described as light rail. In those places, trams running on mixed rights-of-way are not regarded as a light rail but considered distinctly as streetcars or trams. However, the requirement for saying that a rail line is "separated" can be quite low—sometimes just with concrete "buttons" to discourage automobile drivers from getting onto the tracks. Some systems such as Seattle's Link had on-road mixed sections but were closed to regular road traffic, with light rail vehicles and buses both operating along
7154-462: The light rail concept was the "Shaker Heights Rapid Transit" which started in the 1920s, was renovated in 1980-81 and is now part of RTA Rapid Transit . Many original tram and streetcar systems in the United Kingdom , United States , and elsewhere were decommissioned starting in the 1950s as subsidies for the car increased. Britain abandoned its tram systems, except for Blackpool , with
7252-483: The line's point of origin in Bethesda). An advocacy group known as "The Inner Purple Line Campaign" proposed that the Purple Line be extended westward to Tysons Corner and eastward to Largo , and that it could eventually cross the new Wilson Bridge from Suitland through Oxon Hill to Alexandria , eventually forming a rail line that encircles the city. The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge (I-495's southern crossing over
7350-428: The manufacturing of light-rail cars, operations, and maintenance, as well as design and construction contracts. On November 24, MDOT agreed to pay $ 250 million to PLTP to settle the costs of overruns, a move approved unanimously in mid-December by Maryland's Board of Public Works (BPW). Officials aimed to restart construction within nine months—i.e., fall 2021. On November 5, 2021, Purple Line officials announced that
7448-465: The old and new systems. Since the 1980s, Portland, Oregon , has built all three types of system: a high-capacity light rail system in dedicated lanes and rights-of-way, a low-capacity streetcar system integrated with street traffic, and an aerial tram system . The opposite phrase heavy rail , used for higher-capacity, higher-speed systems, also avoids some incompatibilities in terminology between British and American English, for instance in comparing
7546-410: The opening date had slipped 32 months. On May 1, the consortium declared their intent to cease work on the line and withdraw from their contract. A temporary restraining order halted the company from quitting work, but it was lifted in September, and PLTP began packing up construction sites the following week. In November, MDOT announced that MTA had assumed many of the Purple Line's contracts, including
7644-467: The peak direction during rush hour. New Carrollton station New Carrollton station is a joint Washington Metro , MARC , and Amtrak station just outside the city limits of New Carrollton , Prince George's County , Maryland located at the eastern end of the Metro's Orange Line . The station will also serve as the eastern terminus of the Purple Line , currently under construction, and
7742-556: The required clearance height can be reduced significantly compared to conventional light rail vehicles. Reference speed from major light rail systems, including station stop time, is shown below. However, low top speed is not always a differentiating characteristic between light rail and other systems. For example, the Siemens S70 LRVs used in the Houston METRORail and other North American LRT systems have
7840-432: The right-of-way that is often separated from other traffic for part or much of the way. Light rail vehicles are typically driven electrically with power being drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley [pole] or a pantograph ; driven by an operator onboard the vehicle; and may have either high platform loading or low-level boarding using steps." However, some diesel-powered transit is designated light rail, such as
7938-415: The road network might lead to increased travel times ( Downs–Thomson paradox , Braess's paradox ). By contrast, light rail vehicles can travel in multi-car trains carrying a theoretical ridership up to 20,000 passengers per hour in much narrower rights-of-way , not much more than two car lanes wide for a double track system. They can often be run through existing city streets and parks , or placed in
8036-401: The roads. Typically roadways have 1,900 passenger cars per lane per hour (pcplph). If only cars are allowed, the capacity will be less and will not increase when the traffic volume increases. When there is a bus driving on this route, the capacity of the lane will be higher and will increase when the traffic level increases. And because the capacity of a light rail system is higher than that of
8134-671: The same as the German term for the mode, Straßenbahn (meaning "street railway"). A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams after World War II except in Blackpool , eight major North American cities ( Toronto , Boston , Philadelphia , San Francisco , Pittsburgh , Newark , Cleveland , and New Orleans ) continued to operate large streetcar systems. When these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both
8232-408: The standard gauge is that standard railway maintenance equipment can be used on it, rather than custom-built machinery. Using standard gauges also allows light rail vehicles to be conveniently moved around using the same tracks as freight railways. Additionally, wider gauges (e.g. standard gauge) provide more floor clearance on low-floor trams that have constricted pedestrian areas at the wheels, which
8330-551: The system was a success with the public, gaining up to 190,000 passengers per day. Automatic train operation is employed on light rail networks, tracking the position and speed of a train and hence adjusting its movement for safety and efficiency. One line of light rail (requires 7.6 m, 25' right of way) has a theoretical capacity of up to 8 times more than one 3.7 m (12 foot) lane on a freeway, excluding busses, during peak times. Roads have ultimate capacity limits that can be determined by traffic engineering , and usually experience
8428-462: The system. The Metro station was closed from May 28, 2022 to September 5, 2022, as part of the summer Platform Improvement Project, which also affected stations north of Stadium-Armory on the Orange Line. Shuttle buses and free parking were provided at the closed stations. On September 10, 2022, Blue Line trains started serving the station due to the 14th Street bridge shutdown as a part of
8526-490: The three-year legal battle surrounding the light-rail line project. In 2019, the Purple Line Transit Partners said the opening date would slip to 2023 or 2024. On April 13, 2020, U.S. District Judge James Bredar dismissed the third and final lawsuit brought by opponents of the Purple Line. By 2020, the project had accrued over $ 800 million in change orders from Purple Line Transit Partners and
8624-503: The trams, making it safe on city streets. Several systems in Europe and a few recently opened systems in North America use diesel -powered trains. When electric streetcars were introduced in the late 19th century, conduit current collection was one of the first ways of supplying power, but it proved to be much more expensive, complicated, and trouble-prone than overhead wires . When electric street railways became ubiquitous, conduit power
8722-460: The vast majority of light rail systems. This avoids the danger potentially presented by an electrified third rail . The Docklands Light Railway uses an inverted third rail for its electrical power, which allows the electrified rail to be covered and the power drawn from the underside. Trams in Bordeaux , France, use a special third-rail configuration where the power is only switched on beneath
8820-434: The widest range of latitude of any rail system in the design, engineering, and operating practices. The challenge in designing light rail systems is to realize the potential of LRT to provide fast, comfortable service while avoiding the tendency to overdesign that results in excessive capital costs beyond what is necessary to meet the public's needs. The BART railcar in the following chart is not generally considered to be
8918-619: Was approved by BPW on January 26, 2022, and signed in April 2022. Full-scale construction activity resumed in summer 2022. In June 2022, MTA said that 77% of the necessary utility relocations had been completed, and that the Glenridge Operations and Maintenance Facility was complete and in operation. In January 2023, the estimated cost to build and operate the line for 36 years was $ 9.28 billion. In July 2023, MTA officials added $ 148 million to their construction-costs estimate, pushing
9016-459: Was coined in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the Federal Transit Administration ) to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany, the term Stadtbahn (to be distinguished from S-Bahn , which stands for Stadtschnellbahn ) was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt
9114-502: Was coined in 1972 in the United States as an English equivalent for the German word Stadtbahn , meaning "city railway". Different definitions exist in some countries, but in the United States, light rail operates primarily along exclusive rights-of-way and uses either individual tramcars or multiple units coupled together, with a lower capacity and speed than a long heavy rail passenger train or rapid transit system. Narrowly defined, light rail transit uses rolling stock that
9212-677: Was introduced in North America in 1972 to describe this new concept of rail transportation. Prior to that time the abbreviation "LRT" was used for " Light Rapid Transit " and " Light Rail Rapid Transit ". The first of the new light rail systems in North America began operation in 1978 when the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta , adopted the German Siemens-Duewag U2 system, followed three years later by Calgary, Alberta , and San Diego, California . The concept proved popular, with there now being numerous light rail systems in
9310-507: Was selected in November 2021, and a new contract was signed in April 2022. This new agreement added $ 3.7 billion to the total cost of building, running, and maintaining the Purple Line for 30 years, bringing it to $ 9.3 billion. Construction costs alone rose $ 1.46 billion, bringing the total to $ 3.4 billion. Full-scale construction activity resumed in summer 2022. Costs rose and the opening date receded again in 2023 and 2024. As of March 2024,
9408-510: Was served by Penn Central (later Amtrak) Metroliners . On November 20, 1978, the Washington Metro opened its New Carrollton station, along with the Cheverly , Deanwood , Landover , and Minnesota Avenue stations, marking the completion of 7.4 miles (11.9 km) of Metro track northeast from the Stadium–Armory station . In August 1982, Conrail commuter trains (later AMDOT, then
9506-632: Was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. An early example of
9604-527: Was used in those cities that did not permit overhead wires. In Europe, it was used in London, Paris, Berlin, Marseille, Budapest, and Prague. In the United States, it was used in parts of New York City and Washington, D.C. Third rail technology was investigated for use on the Gold Coast of Australia for the G:link light rail, though power from overhead lines was ultimately utilized for that system. In
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