Infra Insight Blog

Financing for the Maryland Purple Line closed on Friday, June 17 – marking an important milestone for the Maryland Transit Administration’s (and Maryland Department of Transportation’s) plan to deliver a transit solution to ease travel between the Maryland suburbs and Washington, D.C.

Once the project reached commercial close in early April, the winning concessionaire, Purple Line Transit Partners LLC (PLTP), worked closely with the MTA/MDOT team to finalize the financing structure and various other issues. This culminated in a week of financial closings which allowed ...

On April 6, 2016, the Maryland Board of Public Works unanimously approved the public-private partnership (P3) agreement for the Maryland Purple Line light-rail transit project, concluding the 30-day review period described in our previous blog.  The contract documents previously signed by the concessionaire have now been signed by the Maryland Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Secretary Pete Rahn and the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) Administrator, Paul Comfort.

At the Board of Public Works hearing, Comptroller Peter Franchot praised both the Governor ...

On March 2, Governor Larry Hogan and Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Secretary Pete Rahn greenlighted procurement of the Purple Line by MDOT and the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). The contract has been posted and is scheduled for review by the Maryland Board of Public Works in early April.

Part of the region’s ambitious transit strategic plan, the Purple Line is a 16.2 mile, 21 station light rail line that provides additional mobility to the region. MTA estimates total daily ridership will be 69,000 per day by 2030 (74,000 by 2040). The new line will interface ...

On July 28, 2014, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) and Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) issued the final request for proposals for a public-private partnership to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Purple Line light rail transit project using an availability payment approach.  The Purple Line is a 16-mile route extending from New Carrollton in Prince George’s County to Bethesda in Montgomery County, with 21 stations and three links to the Washington DC, Metro and MARC commuter train systems.  The Purple Line has estimated project value of ...

The 141-year-old Baltimore and Potomac (B&P) Tunnel is a major bottleneck on the Northeast Corridor, but Amtrak, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) are conducting a study to examine alternatives to improve or replace the tunnel. 

The two-track B&P Tunnel is used by Amtrak, Maryland's MARC Commuter Rail trains and Norfolk Southern freight trains. The track geometry of the outdated tunnel creates a low-speed bottleneck impacting approximately 85 Amtrak trains, 57 MARC commuter trains and one to two freight trains each day.

On January 8, 2014, the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transit Administration announced that four teams were short-listed to submit proposals to design, build, construct, finance, operate and maintain the Purple Line Project through a public-private partnership (P3). The estimated $2.2 billion Purple Line Project is 16.2 mile light rail transit line that extends from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George’s County, connecting major activity centers inside the Capital Beltway. The four teams, representing a combination of ...

The Maryland Department of Transportation and Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT/ MTA) announced on December 11, 2013 that six private-sector teams responded to a Request for Qualifications to design, build, construct, finance, operate and maintain the Purple Line project.  The list of proposer teams is included in the joint press release.

The 16-mile light rail line, which will be constructed under Maryland’s newly adopted Public-Private Partnership law, runs between Bethesda in Montgomery County, Maryland and New Carrollton in Prince George’s County, Maryland.  ...