The Purple Line alignment battles continue as new videos and renderings were released by the Maryland Transit Administration showing the line going down Campus Drive, a route opposed by university administrators.
Administrators say if the Purple Line, a light-rail train that would link College Park with Bethesda and New Carrollton, travels down Campus Drive, it’ll mess up sensitive research equipment with its vibrations and electromagnetic waves. They want the Purple Line to go around South Campus.
But the MTA, as well as the City of College Park, the Student Government Association and just about everybody else, say Campus Drive is the center of campus and therefore the best place to put the light-rail line.
The alignment has to be decided within two years, but until then, here’s a cool video of what it could look like going down Campus Drive:
And here’s some pictures of the Purple Line going down Campus Drive:
Purple Line by Hornbake Library
Purple Line by the Stamp Student Union
Purple Line by the College Park Metro Station
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Note: Thanks to Clay Gump at Rethink College Park for the heads up. Video and renderings from the MTA website.
Look closely at that rendering. Notice anything interesting about the overhead wires?
Like the fact that they’re apparently magically hovering in the air, with no ugly support towers holding them up? Those two poles in the video are lights, not light rail towers.
Curious, isn’t it? How will the wires stay up? What miracle will allow the Purple Line’s overhead wires to run 100 yards and turn corners with no visible support whatsoever?
Make no mistake: Light rail on Campus Drive WILL be a major and irreversible visual blemish upon the center of campus. These renderings demonstrate that the MTA has zero concern about that, going as far as to hide the fact that light rail requires the construction of towers at regular intervals in order to hold up the electrical conduit. No towers, no light rail.
So what do light rail electrical towers look like anyway? Here are some examples. Imagine what they will look like running down Campus Drive.
Milwaukee: http://tinyurl.com/ox6da6
Denver: http://tinyurl.com/mvdexb
Portland: http://tinyurl.com/m8pdpu
And a couple of views from Phoenix:
http://tinyurl.com/lcftdy
http://tinyurl.com/mvfupx
Note the towers, the ugliest part of the system. That’s that part that just happens to be missing from that MTA video. It’s not a coincidence.
Look at the reality of those pictures vs. the rendering. Ask yourself, honestly, whether you think the MTA is being honest with you about what light rail would look like on Campus Drive.
There are a lot of benefits to running the Purple Line through campus. Aesthetics WILL NOT be one of them. Particularly in areas where the tracks must take a corner or curve, campus aesthetics will suffer tremendously. You may or may not personally think this is important, but keep in mind that the Campus Drive entrance is the very first impression most people get when they visit the campus in person. And yes, someday Campus Drive up the hill by the Union will be closed to regular traffic — but that doesn’t change the fact that the Union will still have the heaviest foot traffic in College Park. The places that will greatly suffer from a Campus Drive alignment just happen to be the places where most people go — and the places where they expect a certain visual standard to be maintained.
UMCP has invested millions of dollars in making its Georgian (and “neo-Georgian”) architecture visually attractive. Millions. Campus Drive and the Union are no exceptions. Light rail is important, but running it through the beating heart of campus will be a major, major visual mistake.
Maybe the trade-off — bringing the train to the functional center of campus — is worth it. But to have that debate, first we need organizations like the MTA and UMCP to be honest about its impacts. I personally am skeptical of the UMCP claim that research will really be substantially affected by light rail, but this rendering demonstrates that the MTA’s pants are on fire too. It’s a shame that neither side can even bring simple honestly to the table.
MTA: Please revise this video to show the tower-riddled reality of light rail.
Let’s all look forward to spending a fortune to ride a purple line that will successfully link us to exactly what? Oh, right, it basically replaces the shuttle bus route to Silver Spring. We really don’t need the purple line unless you’re trying to take the MARC up to Baltimore…but then why wouldn’t you just take the free bar buses? Its a big waste of money. Put the money into higher ed budget and keep tuition down.