The Purple Line is still years (like half a decade at this point?) away from completion.

Yeah I think it's 'projected' to be open in 2026, but these things are never on time.

That being said as someone who lives in the area along the route I'm really hoping it will be usable but I'm not sure given it doesn't actually "connect" with the existing train stops (you'd need to walk decently far and enter a separate building to do transfers to existing lines).

Also have seen how bad the Baltimore light rail is and I'm worried they cheaped out, when they should have just paid the money to get an actual additional metro line built the way the others are (the current lines do not need to stop for pedestrians and drivers going when they shouldn't).

Hoping I'm wrong and this will seamlessly connect with the existing system, but was hoping someone with more info could shed some light.

Medical Ctr to where the Purple Line station in Bethesda will be is, like, half a mile. Easier just to walk it. Even so, I think the PL station will be at most a couple hundred yards from the subway station.

The Purple line in SS will run right through the big bus terminal which is basically attached to the SS subway station. (It will run over the end of the SS metro platform.) So yes, you'll have to get off the Red line and walk about 50 yards or less to the PL station.

IF the thing ever gets built, I can't imagine it will be faster to ride the Red line all the way around.

I don't recall what travel times are planned to be (though I do recall seeing an estimate of that once quite some time ago.

But for transfers, the Purple Line will exist completely separate from Metro. You will have to exit one system completely to enter the other. I don't even know if they plan to utilize SmarTrip, though I would assume they will and it wouldn't make sense not to.

Per the EIS, it should take about an hour to go from Bethesda to New Carrollton, so an average speed of about 16mph compared to the metro average of 33mph. These are averages and include station dwell times, acceleration/deceleration, and waiting for traffic. The Purple line will top out at 55mph, however it’s unlikely that much (if any) of the route will actually be at that speed. Based on the published numbers, it looks like it’ll probably be between 10-15 minutes on average to go from Bethesda to Silver Spring

How fast will it be:

We won’t know for sure until they can do testing and validation, since a lot is dependent on how traffic signals are configured and how much things like pedestrians and intersections slow it down. The MTA estimates it will take about an hour to complete the full 16 miles, tho I suspect the Bethesda>Silver Spring and CP Metro>New Carrollton bits will be substantially faster than the Silver Spring>CP Metro stretch. So let’s say on average it will be about half the speed of metro trains as another commenter suggested.

What is the wait between trains

The website says they aim for trains every 7.5 min during rush hour and every 12 min off peak, but I am told that those numbers are still only estimates and may change when they can actually start running trains and get a sense of the reality of the operating conditions. In the future I believe it’s designed to hypothetically be able to have trains as frequently as every 5 min.

Medical Center to Forest Glenn

Almost certainly faster to incorporate the purple line, the section from Bethesda to Silver Spring is nearly completely grade separated from traffic so it will be the fastest part of the whole line.

How do transfers work

At Bethesda, the purple line station will be a bit underground, and they are building a new southern entrance to the metro station to directly link to the purple line and provide better access into the metro from that part of Bethesda.

At Silver Spring, it will be on the top floor of the adjacent transit center, and they plan to construct a new bridge from the purple line station to the Red line, with stairs leading down to the red line platform from above. This overpass isn’t present on the online renderings but I have had it confirmed to me multiple times by people on the purple line team that it is planned.

At College Park and New Carrollton it will have its own platform somewhat adjacent to the bus bays, you can see those layouts on the website under construction>plans.

How do fares work

You will need to tap out of the metro to get to the purple line, but the purple line will almost certainly be SmarTrip compatible. What exactly the fares would be or if discounts for Metro/Bus > Purple Line transfers will be offered is still up in the air.

You have 6 years. Take a deep breath and worry about something else

Who cares if it's 6 years away from opening?

This post is far and away better than the dozens of "what should I do" and "where should I live" posts.

I like all the posts. Reality is that the DC sub is pretty boring.

Hey you’re a home owner these are good questions. Having metro nearby will probably significantly increase property value and change your way of life. For one thing I imagine in about a decade there will be tons of high density housing all along the purple line stops.

Perhaps. MoCo has a master plan when it comes to new housing.

Thanks for backing me up boss. This post came back from -1 haha

Awesome thanks for the reply!

You are the best, thanks for typing this out, sounds like it will be a lot more useful than I thought it would be haha, great to hear!

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> At Silver Spring, it will be on the top floor of the adjacent transit center, and they plan to construct a new bridge from the purple line station to the Red line, with stairs leading down to the red line platform from above. This overpass isn’t present on the online renderings but I have had it confirmed to me multiple times by people on the purple line team that it is planned.

Wait, that's happening? Awesome! I remember way back before they started construction I provided feedback or answered a survey about the purple line (or maybe just about transfers between the purple line and Metro) and the bridge from the new mezzanine to the top of the transit center was the number one thing I wanted. Even did a really bad photoshop of the station renders and everything. Never got any responses so I doubt it was because of me or anything but still glad to see it is actually happening.

Edit: I found an old email relating to it. I was responding to a WMATA hearing about changes to Metro stations for the Purple Line in late 2017. So not before construction but right after it started.

Actually the Medical Center station is touch over one mile from the Bethesda station.

Still walking distance in nice weather. Not sure it would be worth getting into the subway. Depending on their frequency, hopping a bus might be better.

honestly a nice and well-structured post with clear questions that aren't easily answered by simple google searches.

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I think red line could get down to 3 minute headways (i think they managed that for a couple months back in 2008....)

but we'll see if they can regain their former glory.

I am super excited for the Purple Line and I was very bummed when I learned the average speed is so slow. Even with the worst beltway traffic it will almost always be faster to drive. :/

Bear in mind that average speed includes station stops. It's really hard to get a good intuition of—it's not like it will tootle along at 16mph; it will run at 30+ mph, stop, run at 30+ mph, stop, etc.

For comparison, I remember seeing (a ways back admittedly) that the average speed of the J buses on East-West Hwy are about 7-8mph. Compared to that, 16mph is a huge improvement. It seems very unlikely that between Bethesda and Silver Spring, for example, that driving would be faster, even with clear roads.

You can still find some of the old renderings if you Google something like "Silver Spring Purple Line mezzanine". Here's an example (from WMATA): https://www.wmata.com/initiatives/upload/general-plans-silver-spring.pdf (PDF)

When the new contractor took over, it seems like a lot of old materials were yanked from the Purple Line site; I'm guessing some of it may have been the property of the old builder.

I definitely remember the old contractor talking about it; at one of the community meetings a few years back I explicitly remember them talking about the phasing of the construction on the Metro platform for the new mezzanine and entrance. However, since then I haven't really heard anything concrete. I certainly hope it's still in the plan.

The fact that they separated the stations from Metro is bonkers. But they did.

It will absolutely use smarttrip. Every single county run bus network in the DC area accepts smarttrip. The Baltimore rail and bus network (charmcard territory) is compatible with smartcard. Ideally it would be free to ride to simplify transfers with metro but realistically it will be the same process as getting off the metro and using a county run bus

It’s 3 years away

It’s ran by MTA so you’ll be able to buy tickets via the Charm Pass app.

Yes, I understand that. The average speed is what matters for me personally when I want to travel from one of the line to the other.

It's a different agency, MTA, that will be operating the Purple Line, so I don't see how they could have been directly integrated. It's no different from, say, SEPTA and PATCO trains in Philadelphia or the NYC Subway and PATH trains in New York and New Jersey, which don't have transfer agreements and didn't even have compatible payment systems.

All of those other systems have multi-system terminals. Penn Station, Grand Central etc. You can literally walk across the hall in the same building and change trains. In Bethesda you will need to exit the station and walk around the corner to the other station entrance to transfer between Metro and Purple Line.

Situations like Union Station are the exception, not the rule. There's not even a direct connection from Amtrak/VRE to Metro at Alexandria, or from Amtrak/MARC at New Carrollton, where their platforms are literally across from one another and their rails use the same right of way.

I don’t think the bridge will go to top level of the SSTC. You would still need to go down to ground level and then go up to the top level.

At Bethesda, a new elevator shaft will be constructed that goes down to the metro station. I believe the elevators will go up to mezzanine level of the PL station, which is one level underground.

But that's what's already in the renders, they were saying the overpass isn’t in the renders.

I hope you’re right. That would make transfer between the two stations easier.