U. of Maryland Wants State Officials to Move Planned Transit Line

You might think a university aspiring to offer its students chic urban amenities would welcome a plan to run a transit line down the main street of its campus. But the University of Maryland at College Park is trying to persuade the state to put its new Purple Line somewhere else.

According to The Washington Post, university officials worry that the transit line would spoil the pedestrian ambiance the university is seeking to create on Campus Drive. But state planners working on the line’s route say it needs to go where the people are.

The Purple Line is to be built for either light-rail vehicles — modern versions of once-ubiquitous streetcars — or express buses. Planners say either kind of vehicle can operate safely around pedestrians.

The 16-mile line is designed to link several suburbs north of Washington. University officials initially wanted it to run through the campus in a tunnel, but the state said that option would be far too expensive. Then planners picked a route that the university said would be so close to research labs that it might disrupt delicate projects.

Now the university says the planners’ latest route — along Campus Drive — could endanger students walking or biking to class, and the university has come up with a counterproposal that would wind through parking lots and grassy areas. Meanwhile time for negotiating is running out. Planners hope to start building the line no later than four years from now.