Representatives for the proposed Purple Line spread information about the future transit system at the Farmer’s Market in front of the Cole Field House, September 17th, 2014
The Purple Line Outreach Team visited the university’s farmers market yesterday to educate students and citizens of College Park about the project and how it will affect the community.
These events allow the Purple Line to gain community feedback and help citizens prepare for the construction process, according to Kay Underwood, Maryland Transit Partners media and community liaison.
“What we like to do with these outreach events is to give the general public the opportunity to meet with our staff so we can raise awareness about the project and give potential future riders the chance to ask us questions,” said Paul Shepard, Maryland Transit Administration deputy director of media relations.
The MTA holds about 12 outreach events each year, covering all major projects such as the Purple Line and the proposed Baltimore Red Line, Shepard said. The number of attendees varies, he said, but the public is generally supportive of their efforts.
“We get a lot of positive feedback,” Shepard said. “Every now and then we get somebody worried about something they read or something they heard, and that’s part of our job, too, to tell them that we believe this will be a successful project.”
Sophomore communication major Chloe Isaac said that while she had heard people talk about the Purple Line, she hadn’t read anything about the project before yesterday. She said the outreach team helped to better inform her about the Metro line and its impact.
“It doesn’t sound as bad as everyone’s making it seem,” Isaac said. “It sounds like it could be really helpful, and public transportation is really important for a lot people.”
The Purple Line will run east to west through Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and will cut through this university’s campus on Campus Drive, according to MTA project maps. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2015, and the line is scheduled to open for service in 2020.
“We find that oftentimes people don’t know what the project is, what its impact will be and how we feel it will benefit them down the road,” Shepard said. “The idea is to give the regular folks out there a sense of what the Purple Line will bring them.”
Two Purple Line representatives manned a booth at the farmers market from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and handed out informational pamphlets and maps, as well as Purple Line merchandise such as canvas totes, key lanyards, key chains and yo-yos, to students and city residents.
Senior English and marketing major Amanda Picone and her sister, senior supply chain management and international business major Melissa Picone, said that while they had heard of the Purple Line, they did not know much about where the rail would run or when it would be built.
Since the two expect to graduate well before the line will be finished, the information would be more useful to other students, they said.
Senior sociology major Chris Quach said the Purple Line caught his attention when the plan was in discussion a few years ago, because he lives in Montgomery County and started commuting to school this year.
While the line will not be completed during Quach’s time as a student here, he said he thinks the completed line will benefit many students from surrounding areas.
“It’d be a lot easier than getting to the College Park Metro and taking a shuttle versus having a stop right on campus,” he said. “It’d be really convenient.”
Due to an editing error, a previous headline of this story identified the Purple Line as being part of the D.C. Metro. It is a light rail project in development by the Maryland Transit Administration.
