Chevy Chase: MTA Gives Unusable Data for Purple Line Ridership Numbers

As Chevy Chase town leaders continue to question ridership estimates and other plans for the proposed Purple Line, the Maryland Transit Administration has released data files to local officials tied to ridership numbers.

But none of the encrypted data is usable without the software to decode it -- something the MTA says it could not provide.

Questions have arisen about the validity of Purple Line ridership estimates. The proposed light rail system is estimated to cost $2.37 billion.

Construction is scheduled to begin on the route in 2015. The Purple Line would make stops at the University of Maryland, Silver Spring and Takoma Park and other major population centers.

But, more than 116 home and business owners are going to have to vacate their property to make room for the new train’s route.

The Town of Chevy Chase voted at its July 9 council meeting to formally submit a Maryland Public Information Act request to the state, asking for the methodology and models used to formulate the ridership estimates, according to a previous Patch story.

“Purple Line advocates have justified the need for the proposed light rail train based on ridership numbers that were developed in a private, secret process by a paid contractor,” Patricia Burda, vice mayor for the Town of Chevy Chase previously said. “These ridership numbers have changed over time, yet have been substantially endorsed and quoted as valid by advocates and elected officials. Since past efforts to access this information have been rebuffed, we are pursuing an official inquiry through the public information act process.”

Burda also said a full explanation of ridership numbers should be reviewed before Congress appropriates over $2 billion in taxpayer money for the project.

In response to the request, the MTA provided publicly-available travel forecasting reports, according to a press release, but wrote back to the Town of Chevy Chase saying it could not provide the software to read the encrypted files and run the travel forecast models.

The MTA also noted that nationally-accepted practices for travel forecasting were used for the ridership estimates, but the Town of Chevy Chase is unable to determine whether or not the practices are objective or applicable to the area.

“Although we appreciate the MTA’s responsiveness to our request, the information they have provided is useless in determining the validity of Purple Line ridership estimates,” said Town Mayor Kathy Strom in the news release.

“For this reason, the Town will be submitting requests and questions to the MTA regarding the practices and assumptions used to estimate ridership so that we can determine whether they are appropriate and whether they changed during the course of the study,” Mayor Strom said.