Purple Line Backers Protest
Hogan Puts Purple Line On Ice and Flies to Vegas
Press release issued May 18, 2015
Transit backers are gathering during the Monday morning rush hour to protest Governor Larry Hogan's announcement of an indefinite delay in the Purple Line. Members of the Action Committee for Transit are assembling in front of the future light rail station at the new Silver Spring Library to say that the light rail line must go forward.
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After revealing the delay—which endangers $1.6 billion in federal grants and low-interest loans—in a Washington Post article that appeared at 11:00 Friday night, Governor Hogan is flying out of Maryland to attend a shopping center convention in Las Vegas. The governor has yet to tour the route of the Purple Line.
"The governor needs to do his job and make the decision that Maryland's businesses and working families are waiting for," said ACT president Nick Brand. "He found time to go to Vegas, but couldn't get to Silver Spring or Riverdale Park?"
Maryland taxpayers are paying for the governor's trip to Las Vegas.
ACT vice-president Ronit Aviva Dancis pointed out that employers like Marriott and the FBI now insist on being near transit. "If Governor Hogan wants to sell Maryland as a place to do business, why does he continue to ignore the project business people say they want most?" she asked.
ACT remains confident, Brand said, that the Purple Line will be built. "Either by this governor or by a future governor," he added.