Bethesda South Metro Entrance and the Purple Line Connection
Update
The newly adopted county budget delays construction of the new Bethesda Metro entrance until 2015.
History
Nineteen years ago in 1989, the Montgomery County Council voted to endorse light rail between Bethesda and Silver Spring. Almost two decades later, this concept has expanded into the Purple Line light rail from Bethesda to New Carrollton, but nothing has been built and east-west commuters still sit in traffic. Between the early 1990s and last year, no county money has been spent to help build the transit link we badly need.
In May 2008, the Montgomery County Council voted to fund construction of a new south entrance to the Bethesda Metro which will serve as the connection between the Red Line and the future Purple Line from Bethesda to New Carrollton.
The Bethesda south entrance will be a bank of elevators going down from the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Elm Street to the back end of the Metro station. The Purple Line (also known as Bi-County Transitway) will have its Bethesda terminus in the tunnel that goes under under Wisconsin Avenue at this intersection.
Why We Need to Build the New South Entrance to the Bethesda Metro Now
The cost of this project is $60 million. Metro has completed planning and preliminary design studies. Click here for the Study Summary, Study Main Text, and the Appendices. In 2008, the county appropriated $5 million for design and preparation of bid documents. This work is being carried out by the Maryland Transit Administration and should be finished in mid-2010.
The new entrance will make the Red Line much more accessible to downtown Bethesda. The number of dwelling units within ¼ mile of a station entrance will increase by 68%, and the number of jobs will grow by 11%. Even without the Purple Line, this entrance would attract 700 additional daily trips on the Red Line at Bethesda by 2030. In addition, 9000 daily trips by people who would use the Red Line anyway will be faster because the new entrance will be closer to them.
The south entrance will also relieve congestion on the escalators that connect the train platform to the mezzanine of the existing Bethesda station entrance. If the new entrance is not constructed, congestion on the escalators will reach unacceptable levels as ridership increases over the next ten years, and a new stairway or escalator will have to be built. A second entrance will also make the station safer by providing a way out if an emergency were to block the north entrance.
Passengers will take high-speed elevators down to the Red Line, as they do at Forest Glen and at the south end of Friendship Heights. When the Purple Line is built, the elevators will make a third stop in the tunnel under Wisconsin to provide the connection between the Purple Line and the Red Line.
The Bethesda south entrance was in the county Master Plan long before the Purple Line. The station was built with “knock-out” panels to facilitate adding a south entrance.
Even before it connects with the Purple Line, the Bethesda south entrance is comparable in cost-effectiveness to other transit investments being made in our region:
- 9000 trips × 0.1 hr/trip = 900 hours saved per day
- $60 million/900 = $66,700 per daily hour saved
This is twice as cost-effective as the Phase 1 Dulles Metrorail Extension which will save 17,800 hours per day at a cost of at least $2.6 billion:
- $2.6 billion/17,800 = $146,100 per daily hour saved