Reporters' Notebook

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Students, faculty, state and federal officials discussed campus locations for the Purple Line Tuesday evening, during a hearing in which the university president set the tone.

“Not having a Purple Line is not an option,” said Dr. Wallace Loh.

Former governor Parris Glendening, president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, underscored the importance of the light rail line to the University of Maryland’s interests.

“This Purple Line makes us competitive,” Glendening told the crowd of a few hundred. “It is one of the most powerful economic development tools in any community’s arsenal.”

The proposed rail line, expected to reduce congestion on the Capital Beltway, would stretch 16 miles from Bethesda, through the center of the University of Maryland campus and across Route 1 to the future East Campus development. It would continue through to the College Park Metrorail Station before eventually terminating at the New Carrollton Metrorail Station, according to the Maryland Transit Authority.

Its alignment through campus is under contention. MTA has proposed an above-ground route along Campus Drive, through the center of campus.

But some members of the campus community have expressed concerns about the effect passing trains could have on sensitive lab equipment if the Purple Line is routed along Campus Drive. Others have raised concerns about pedestrian safety, if the line is above ground.

Ralign Wells, chief of the MTA, noted the crowd’s seeming support Tuesday of the Campus Drive station.

“I was glad to see everyone in favor of our proposal,” Wells said.

Not quite everyone.

Two members of the panel, Elise Miller-Hooks, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Michael Loehr, deputy practice leader of rail and transit at the engineering firm Hatch Mott MacDonald, spoke in favor of an alignment at Preinkert Drive.

“We think the Preinkert alignment increases safety and operational reliability,” Loehr said, reducing interference with pedestrians.

The University of Maryland released a report in October 2010 prepared by Hatch Mott MacDonald that suggested alternatives to the Campus Drive alignment, including a tunnel under Preinkert Drive.

But the estimated $50 million such a tunnel would cost is of concern to planners, said Monica Meade, MTA’s transportation and land use planning consultant.

“Any added cost will be a challenge for the state,” Meade said. “Clearly, the cost of anything is a big issue right now.”

Loh has not yet taken an official position on the Purple Line’s alignment, but will make a recommendation to Chancellor William Kirwan in coming months, said Millree Williams, a university spokesman. Kirwan will then make a recommendation to the Board of Regents, which will inform the MTA.

The MTA sends the final plan to the federal government.

Christopher Ellepola, 25, who has lived in College Park since he was 2 and is now a computer science major at the University of Maryland, expressed disappointment that Loh did not throw his support behind the Campus Drive station.

“The risk to pedestrians is a non-issue,” Ellepola said. “The alternative is what we have now, and safety is already unacceptable.”

Construction of the Purple Line is expected to begin around 2013 or 2014 at the earliest, if funding is available, Meade said. To obtain sufficient funds, the project would first have to win highly competitive federal money to cover at least half of its approximately $1.7 billion cost, said Terry Owens, a spokesman for MTA.

The project would likely take three to five years to complete once started, according to the MTA.

–By Maryland Newsline’s Collin Berglund