In 2013, the Montgomery County Council unanimously approved an 81-mile bus rapid transit system – which may be the most ambitious bus rapid transit plan for any suburban jurisdiction in the United States. Once built, the approved corridors will connect Montgomery County’s major neighborhoods, employment centers, and commercial corridors. Montgomery County is currently doing studies for the first three BRT routes: MD355, Veirs Mill Rd, and RT.29.
As of May 2017, the Montgomery County Council has signed off on $7.5 million to design the Rt. 29 BRT line and to continuing studying BRT along MD 355. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation has also been awarded $10 million in TIGER grant funds to construct the Rt. 29 BRT line, named “Flash.” It is set to open in 2020. The route is planned from the Burtonsville Park and Ride to Downtown Silver Spring in both dedicated shoulder lanes and mixed traffic. Plans for more dedicated space in the southern portion of the corridor are underway. This will be the first BRT line in Montgomery County.
Resources
Here are some additional great resources to learn more about our work for BRT in Montgomery County:
Bus Rapid Transit supporters are split on the Master Plan the county’s Planning Department will likely send to the County Council next week on the new transportation system. Some are still worried language inserted into the plan that would require “a thorough traffic analysis” before any BRT system is implemented severely waters down
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 12, 2013 CONTACT: Alex Posorske, (202) 675-0016 ext. 126 Montgomery Rapid Transit System Takes Major Step Forward with Planning Board Approval A new county-wide rapid transit system in Montgomery County took a major step forward yesterday when the Montgomery County Planning Board unanimously approved a master plan for
The Montgomery County Councilmember who is credited with first proposing a Bus Rapid Transit network for the county is optimistic parts of a BRT system will start being built in the next four years. Councilmember March Elrich (D-At large) also said he thinks ridership projections in the Master Plan for
Dozens of Montgomery residents packed the Montgomery County Planning Department headquarters in Silver Spring Thursday evening to support the Planning Department’s goal of advancing a new rapid transit system for Montgomery. Citing the proposed system’s potential for offering the best solution to the County’s traffic challenges, reducing local air pollution from car emissions, and providing more affordable transit options and access to jobs for working families and young people, the residents asked the Planning Board to adopt the proposed system into Montgomery’s General Plan for transportation.
Transit advocates are going on the offensive after the Montgomery County Planning Board expressed some reluctance toward the idea of wiping out a lane of regular Rockville Pike traffic for Bus Rapid Transit-exclusive lanes. That idea, presented in Planning Staff’s Draft Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan a few weeks
