Signing Event to Clinch $900M Purple Line Funding Postponed
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Officials have postponed a signing event that would have locked in $900 million in federal funding to build the light-rail Purple Line in Maryland.
Citing an email Thursday from the Maryland Department of Transportation, the Washington Post reports that the Federal Transit Administration postponed the Monday signing event indefinitely.
The signing event would have clinched nearly half of the $2 billion needed for the project's construction.
A ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington made the light-rail project ineligible. Leon said that Maryland must do another study projecting anticipated Purple Line ridership that takes into account the potential impact of declining Metrorail ridership and safety issues.
Construction of the 16.2-mile Purple Line to connect Bethesda to College Park was scheduled to begin late 2016.
(Copyright 2016 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
