I think you are wrong on two counts:

1) The health benefit from a higher level of physical activity from Purple Line users will always overwhelm the health benefits from the physical activity from using the trail, whether the trail is extended or not. That is because the transit users will always outnumber the trail users by an order of magnitude.

2) You say an improved trail can easily be built without the Purple Line. Not true! The largest single improvement to get more benefit out of the trail would be to extend it into downtown Silver Spring as a direct off-road trail. How do you propose to “easily” obtain the crucial CSX r.o.w. to make that possible? Or do you have another route in mind? What is it? Many people have been wanting to find an easy alternative to building the trail into Silver Spring along the CSX corridor, with no success.

Wayne Phyillaier

Kind thanks
http://www.caramoan.ph“>

I doubt that taking the trail out of the stack will help the Purple Line much. Remember that the Purple Line must be at about the fourth level to clear the CSX tracks where it crosses over at the north side of Colesville Road. Railroad clearance standards are greater than are highway clearance standards. There may not be enough distance between that railroad crossover and the transit station platform for the Purple Line to drop down to the third level. (The Purple Line can’t cross over any further north and still clear through the pinch point at the Metro Plaza building.)

If lowering the trail would help, it would be better to lower the trail to the second level as it was portrayed in earlier plans than to push it out of the transit center. There would likely be conflicts with pedestrian traffic crossing to the MARC platforms at the second level, but that would be less damaging to the integrity of the trail than having the trail cross Colesville Road at-grade and use streets like Wayne and Ramsey, with more at-grade street crossings, to connect to the MetBranch Trail.

Waynep

The national double-stack standard is 22′6″ — does that force the Purple Line up to the fourth level?

I think MTA is boxed into having the Purple Line be high by elevation requirements at both ends of the station. At the north end, the Purple Line bridge that will bring the Purple Line from the west to the east side of the CSX tracks has a strict requirement of how much it must clear the CSX tracks (24′ clear, I believe). At the south end, the Purple Line must be high enough so its structure clears “Ripifant” Road by a good margin (16′ would be a typical street clearance requirement). Add to that the requirement that the Purple Line platform in the center of the station must be level, and there is little room for MTA to lower the track elevation between the needed high elevations at both the north and south ends.

I agree it will be a challenge to make this high structure not appear to be overbearing. But the south side of the CSX/Metro tracks is lined with high office buildings that will still be much higher than any transit station or Purple Line structures.

waynep