By Eli Segall

This map by the Maryland Transit Administration shows two possible paths (in gold) for the Purple Line through Silver Spring.

Purple balloons filled the ceiling, as Hershey’s Kisses wrapped in purple foil sat on purple tablecloths. Caterers wearing purple aprons served men with purple neckties and women in purple shirts.

The guests chatted, exchanging countless handshakes and backslaps, as purple fluorescent lights beamed from the floor.

The Oct. 10 fundraiser for the advocacy group Purple Line Now raked in more than $30,000, and brought together more than 100 politicians, lobbyists and environmental and transit activists. Bundled into the student center of Montgomery College, all came to push the same agenda: the proposed Purple Line transit route.

Several speakers–who stood on a podium with a projection screen behind them running classic trolley car footage–railed against global warming, suburban sprawl, and clogged highways.

One speaker, a labor official, warned politicians not yet supporting the Purple Line to get on board, or face the consequences.

“It’s time to ante up, it’s time to pony up, and if you can’t do that, maybe you ought to find another way of livelihood,” said Joslyn Williams, president of Metropolitan Washington AFL-CIO.

Robert Jepson, director of government affairs at Washington Adventist Hospital, said in an interview that the project is “a no-brainer.”

“As the area becomes more congested, that impacts people’s access to health care,” said Jepson, who wore a purple necktie to the event.
But not everyone in the community is on board.

“It will cut right through the heart of a stable, long-lived, minority-owned mom and pop business district,” said Elisabeth Higgins Null, who lives on Bonifant Street, two blocks from downtown Silver Spring.

Null said she doesn’t oppose the Purple Line outright, but she wants it underground to avoid slicing commercial arteries.
Karen Roper agrees.

“This is a small working class community that will be majorly impacted by this,” said Roper, a member of the East Silver Spring Citizens Association.
Roper is particularly concerned with issues of eminent domain–that is, whether the route will require local business owners and homeowners to sell their property to the government to clear space.

“I think you need to protect the community,” she said.
The Purple Line, a proposed 16-mile, east-west transit route connecting Bethesda to New Carrollton, is still in design stages. The mode of transit–light-rail train or bus–has not been selected, nor has it been decided which governmental agency will operate it.

Currently, it’s slated to run inside the Capital Beltway and connect with four Metro stations–Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park and New Carrollton–and three MARC lines.

In addition, a 4 ½-mile paved trail will run parallel to the route from Bethesda to Silver Spring.

Nearly a dozen federal, state and local agencies are coordinating the Purple Line planning efforts, said Mike Madden, project manager for the Maryland Transit Administration.

“It’s already a slow process partly because of that,” said Madden, who said construction would start no earlier than 2012.

"The MTA will release a cost estimate and projected ridership figures in December," he added.

Madden is the contact person for community neighborhood association meetings with MTA regarding purle line concerns. To learn more, call Mike Madden at
410-767-3694; or visit www.purplelinemd.com or www.mtamaryland.com/projects.

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