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The Interim CCT near Lyttonsville. |
The Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) now begins as an interim trail in an obscure industrial park in Lyttonsville, over one mile from downtown Silver Spring. The Interim CCT has been built with a crushed stone surface from Lyttonsville to Bethesda. A restored railroad trestle gives an easy crossing of the Rock Creek Stream Valley.
The Capital Crescent Trail has been completed as a paved asphalt trail from Bethesda to Georgetown. The Trail follows an abandoned B&O railbed, and has gentle grades and only a few at-grade roadway crossings. It follows a tree lined corridor through a tunnel and over four bridges, and offers beautiful views of the Potomac River. The paved CCT between Bethesda and Georgetown is often crowded with cyclists, rollerbladers, joggers, and walkers. It is not unusual to see over 500 users/hr. on the CCT during evenings and weekends.
See the website of the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail for a complete map of the trail.
The on-road Georgetown Branch Trail must be used to reach the CCT in Lyttonsville from downtown Silver Spring and from most Silver Spring neighborhoods.
Source: www.cctrail.org
The Georgetown Branch Trail (shown as green "connections") to the Interim CCT. |
The Georgetown Branch Trail has many roadway crossings, two of them six-lane state highways with heavy turning traffic. This on-road bike route serves for cyclists comfortable riding in traffic, but few others will use it. It is for this reason that a 2006 traffic survey counted traffic on the Interim CCT east of the Rock Creek Trestle as only a small fraction of that on the CCT between Bethesda and Georgetown.
The Georgetown Branch Trail crosses 16th Street in North Silver Spring. |
Connecting the CCT to downtown Silver Spring is crucial for completing an off-road trail connection between the urban centers of Bethesda and Silver Spring, and for making the CCT available to Silver Spring neighborhoods. Completing the CCT is also crucial to link the off-road trails on the western side of the county with the off-road trails on the eastern side of the County (Rock Creek Trail, CCT, North Bethesda Trail to the west; MetBranch Trail, S.S. Green Trail, Sligo Creek Trail to the east).
Failure to complete the CCT into Silver Spring as a good off-road trail would be devastating to the planned trail network in lower Montgomery County.
Plans to complete the CCT are on hold until the future of the proposed Purple Line transit/trail project is determined. If the Purple Line project goes forward, then the CCT can be completed alongside transit as an off-road trail with grade separated crossings of major roadways in Silver Spring, connecting seamlessly in the transit center with the Metropolitan Branch Trail. If the Purple Line project is rejected, then only a badly compromised alternate route can be built.
Only a trail alignment along the CSX railroad corridor will support an off-road trail with grade-separated crossings of the busy streets in Silver Spring. No other off-road trail alignment can make a direct connection to the Metropolitan Branch Trail in the Silver Spring Transit Center. See the webpage CCT Street Crossings in Silver Spring for a description of the route options.
Looking south along the CSX corridor toward Silver Spring. |
CSX Railroad owns or controls right-of-way critical for a trail alignment along the railroad corridor. CSX has indicated in a letter to Montgomery County Park and Planning (M-NCPPC) that it will not allow a trail as a stand alone project in their right-of-way. In addition the trail "final mile" is prohibitively expensive to build on this corridor as a stand-alone project.
If transit is built in the CSX corridor, then the transit project must acquire CSX right-of-way. CSX has affirmed, in a letter to Maryland DOT Transportation Secretary Flanagan in early 2004, that CSX is willing to negotiate right-of-way issues with State transit planners. The Purple Line transit/trail project can get access to the CSX owned right-of-way. Transit funds can cover much of the cost of expensive structures like crash barriers and retaining walls that would otherwise have to be covered with scarce trail funds.
MTA planners have presented two alignment alternatives for the Purple Line in the CSX corridor - for the Purple Line tracks to be either on the east side or the west side of the CSX tracks. Concept drawings for both alternative alignments show the CCT to be on the east side - and elevated higher than the CSX tracks to get by at the choke points at the Woodside Mews parking lot, under the 16th Street bridge, and at the approach to Colesville Road. MTA is reported to be favoring the west side alignment for the transit tracks, and this would leave more room to fit the trail on the east side. Profile sketches of the transit/trail at key points in the CSX corridor are available at www.purplelinemd.com.
Neighborhood groups centered in Chevy Chase have wrapped themselves with the "Save the Trail" banner. Their website www.savethetrail.org makes strong claims that light-rail transit will make the trail unsafe and unpleasant to use. But the Purple Line design concept and the experience with many rails-with-trails around the country refute their claims.
 MTA proposed Purple Line profile west of Jones Mill Road. |
The Purple Line CCT design concept provides a full width CCT continuous in the Georgetown Branch corridor with good separation from transit. A wide planted buffer and a fence will be between the trail and transit. MTA favors placing the CCT on the north side of transit between Bethesda and Jones Mill Road so it will be easier for the trail to be higher than the track. Modern light-rail cars like those of Portland will be used, and can run so quietly that bells are needed to warn pedestrians when they approach stations or crossings.
 A trail next to grass tracks in Freiburg. The MTA shows how grass tracks would look alongside the CCT in the Georgetown Branch corridor in their CCT poster. |
Trees will remain in the corridor in the many areas where the r.o.w. is greater than needed for transit, and can combine with the planted buffer between the trail and tracks to give a feeling of being in a green space. If "grass tracks" are used, as MTA is considering, then ironically the only part of the corridor that will not be green will be the pavement of the trail itself.
The Georgetown Branch Corridor was purchased for over ten million dollars in large part for potential transit use, and shared transit-trail use would benefit the largest number of people. Preliminary estimates show that four times as many people will use the Purple Line in one day than now use the trail east of Bethesda in one week. Use of the trail will increase because it will be completed through more neighborhoods and into downtown Silver Spring, and will be connected to the off-road trails east of Rock Creek.
Bruce Adams, who supported purchasing the Georgetown Branch right-of-way and creating the trail while on the Montgomery County Council, observed: "The Capital Crescent Trail is a regional jewel, but it would not exist today had the council not voted in 1988 to purchase the right-of-way for the rail line", and "For trail supporters to attempt to block the rail line by arguing that it will destroy the trail is just not playing fair." (February 6, 2003 letter to Montgomery Gazette).
Key Purple Line decisions will be made in Summer and Fall of 2008, when public meetings will be held following completion of the Alternatives Analysis and Draft Environmental Impact Study (AA/DEIS) and the Preferred Alternative will be selected. The Purple Line project process is described at www.purplelinemd.com. See The CCT and the Purple Line for more on the safety issue. See also the website www.purplelinenow.org and the Sierra Club 2005 Newsletter for more on the transportation and environmental issues from a regional perspective.