The U.S. Department of Transportation and the state of Maryland are expected to sign a funding agreement next week for the Purple Line between Montgomery and Prince George's counties.
Robert McCartney and Faiz Siddiqui report: "Maryland’s Purple Line will receive a $900 million federal full funding agreement from the Trump administration, officials said Monday, a critical step forward for the oft-delayed project."
"Construction of the 16-mile light-rail line linking Montgomery and Prince George’s counties will begin within weeks after the deal is formalized," add McCartney and Siddiqui.
The decision to fund the project comes only a few months after a court decision seemed to have doomed the project to the dustbin of history, but the "announcement put to rest worries in Maryland that the Purple Line might fall victim to desires in the Trump administration and the Republican Party to trim federal transit spending."
As noted in the article, however, if the Trump Administration gets its way, this transit project could be the last to have a happy ending, because the "White House budget released in the spring proposed eliminating new federal grants for transit construction, and the GOP party platform urged phasing out all federal transit spending."
FULL STORY: Maryland to get $900-million federal full funding agreement for Purple Line
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