Steve Burns
WMAL.com
ROCKVILLE, Md. – (WMAL) The Montgomery County Council today is passing a resolution urging Governor Larry Hogan to restore funding to what they say is a much-needed transportation project in the Upcounty, running through the burgeoning biotech and life sciences areas in Gaithersburg and Germantown and reducing congestion on Interstate 270.
The Corridor Cities Transitway would initially connect the Shady Grove Metro station with the Metropolitan Grove MARC station, running through what is known as the Great Senenca Science Corridor. Phase two would bring the line up to Clarksburg.
“Eight of the top ten biotech companies in the region are in the North I-270 corridor,” Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce President Marilyn Balcombe tells WMAL. She says the population there has only been growing, and traffic is only expected to get worse on I-270 as a result.
“This would take local traffic off of I-270 to get along the corridor,” she says. “It’s a transit option that’s been in the master plan forever.”
That plan changed suddenly earlier this month when Hogan announced funding for the plan was a victim of tax revenues that were falling short of projections, mainly thanks to lower gas prices. Hogan said last week he would re-examine revenues in six months and see about restoring funding, noting he realizes the importance of the project.
‘It was a complete shock,” Balcombe says of the moment she learned the project had lost funding. “Why we would stop the project right now, it just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make fiscal sense.”
The Bus Rapid Transit Line would have its own dedicated lanes. Planners were getting ready for public outreach, one of the final steps before petitioning the federal government for funding.
The letter the County plans to send to Hogan is signed by all nine councilmembers, in addition to the County’s delegation in Annapolis and Washington. They note the project is the County’s top transportation priority now that the Purple Line is funded.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Larry Hogan Facebook)
