Silver Spring transit effort lauded by pols
By SARAH BRUMFIELD
Montgomery Journal staff writer
September 12, 2000

Silver Spring's Metrorail and bus station already attracts tens of thousands of people every day, but officials say they are looking to create the "Union Station of Maryland" with plans for a $57 million transit center.

As communities across the country promote transit this week, local, state and federal officials in Silver Spring are touting a project that won't even break ground until the spring.

But when it's done, the Silver Spring transit center will serve increased demand fueled by the area's ongoing revitalization and will reduce congestion by bringing the varied transit systems under one roof, said Maryland's transportation secretary.

"It will be an integral part of downtown Silver Spring,"

Official: Transit center `catalyst' for growth Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari said.

As more people and businesses move into Silver Spring as part of its redevelopment, such a center will be needed to make coming to the downtown area easier, said Nuria I. Fernandez, acting administrator for the Federal Transit Administration. It also will make transfer between the various lines easier for commuters.

The Silver Spring Metrorail station has encouraged development around it over the last 22 years, Fernandez said. An aerial photograph of the station when it opened in 1978 shows it surrounded by a number of vacant lots, she said. Today, it is surrounded by office, residential and retail buildings.

"These stations become catalysts for community development," she said.

The transit center will help reduce congestion and bring more people to Silver Spring, said County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D). The Metro station already attracts 57,000 people every day, and the transit center will help the area keep up after redevelopment, he said.

"This will make downtown Silver Spring a reality," Duncan said.

The center will give commuters easy access to all forms of transit, said Frank Fulton, Maryland Mass Transit Administration spokesman.

"It provides a central hub," he said. Commuters will be able to come from spots as far away as MARC stops in West Virginia and transfer at the transit station to Metrorail or Metrobus or Ride-On, he said.

The new transit center will be built in two overlapping phases, according to MTA officials. The first will begin construction in the spring and finish in 2002. The second phase will begin in summer 2001 and finish in late 2003.

The first phase will relocate MARC commuter rail service next to the Metro station entrance and construct a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks. The project includes two new platforms, a canopy, elevators and stairs and a temporary ticket office that will be replaced in the second phase.

The second phase will build the overall transit center, including about 10,000 square feet of retail space and bus bays serving the county Ride-On buses, Metrobuses and intercity buses such as Greyhound.

The total cost including both phases will be $57.2 million. MTA will cover the $8.3 million cost of the first phase and pass on a $33.3 million federal grant for the second. The county's $15.6 million contribution includes $8 million used to buy land and almost $1 million for a system to track movement of buses and trains and keep riders informed.

County Council member Derick Berlage, D-Silver Spring, supports a state plan being studied to connect Bethesda and Silver Spring by light rail and said that project's addition would take the transit center from "near perfection to absolute perfection."

But even without it, Berlage said, with the redevelopment of Silver Spring and the convenience of the transit center "Silver Spring will be the place to locate in the coming years. With lower land prices than other business centers in the county, "you can hardly do better," he said.

While the transit center is expected to make travel smoother for most commuters, one Silver Spring history buff said he'll be sad to see trains go past a stop they've used since the 1870s.

"I will be sorry to see MARC leave the station for good," said Jerry A. McCoy, president of the Silver Spring Historical Society. "The departure will truly represent the end of an era."
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