Construction of Maryland's Purple Line light-rail transit system will continue as scheduled, at least for now, following a federal appeals court ruling that frees Maryland from having to update the project's environmental studies.
Opponents of the $5.6-billion public-private project, sited in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, challenged the validity of the state's ridership projections, claiming they did not account for declining ridership on the regional Metrorail transit system. After service begins in 2022, transfers between the two systems at four stations will provide as much as 27% of the Purple Line's passenger totals.