Metro Updates: Adding Purple and Silver to the Red, Orange, Green Mix

The Maryland Transit Authority has scheduled a series of open houses to update citizens on the status of the much-discussed Purple Line, the Washington Post reports.

The Purple Line is a proposed light rail link between the Red, Orange and Green Lines of the Washington Metro. Once completed, it's set to 16 miles between Bethesda and New Carrollton.

Among the areas of concern is how construction of the line will be funded. In order for Maryland to receive federal funding, the state must demonstrate that it can pay its half ($2.15 billion) of the cost.

The state's gas tax and various public-private partnerships have been discussed as possible sources of funding, but no decisions have been made.

Learn more about the current state of the Purple Line at one of the remaining meetings:

• Saturday, May 11, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Langley Park Community Center, 1500 Merrimac Drive in Hyattsville.
• Tuesday, May 14 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at BCC High School, 4301 East-West Highway in Bethesda.
• Wednesday, May 15 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Woodridge Elementary School, 5001 Flintridge Drive in Hyattsville.

The Silver Line, meanwhile, is slated to open later this year. It follows much of the existing Orange Line, but runs—for the moment—from Wiehle-Reston in the west to Largo Town Center in the east. (Eventually the line will reach Dulles International Airport and extend all the way to Route 772 in Loudon County.)

With the addition of a new line comes a new Metro map, and WMATA recently released a series of possible redesigns to collect feedback.

Back in 2008, Greater Greater Washington's David Alpert did a little tinkering to see what the full Metro map would look like with the Purple and Silver lines in place. Some of the planned stations have changed, but it's worth a look.