Last July, Montgomery County’s Action Committee for Transit worked with Greater Greater Washington to produce a transit vision for the I-270 corridor. Rather than spending billions of dollars on widening I-270 as the State of Maryland proposes, ACT and GGW argued that it would be better and more affordable to invest in a vigorous integrated transit network.

That was all well and good. BeyondDC agrees. But why stop with the I-270 corridor? There’s more to Montgomery County than Gaithersburg.

That in mind, ACT asked me to produce for them the following map, which expands their original 270 vision to encompass the entirety of Montgomery County.

ACT vision for Montgomery County. Click the map to enlarge.

The proposal includes:

• Extension of the Metrorail Red Line from Shady Grove north along I-370 and I-270 to MD Route 118, where it would end at Germantown Town Center. There would be one intermediate station at Quince Orchard Road, where the line crosses the CSX rail tracks.
• MARC improvements resulting in more frequent, all-day, bi-directional service to Frederick.
• A new spur of the MARC Martinsburg branch to reach Hagerstown.
• The completed Corridor Cities Transitway as light rail, with slight modifications to the route at Crown Farm and Kentlands, and a one-station extension to Clarksburg Town Center.
• The completed Purple Line, using the adopted Locally Preferred Alternative alignment.
• A new light rail line beginning at Silver Spring Metro and extending north along US-29 to Burtonsville.
• A new streetcar line beginning at White Flint Mall and running north along MD Route 355 through Rockville and Gaithersburg, ending at an expanded multi-modal Metropolitan Grove station.
• (Not shown on the map) Various bus priority and/or BRT improvements throughout the county, such as on Veirs Mill Road.

For more about their vision for Montgomery County, visit ACTfortransit.org.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.