Purple Line FAQs

Light rail is an electric passenger railway system that employs single cars or short trains. The trains are powered by a system of overhead electric wires. Tracks can be embedded in roadways, enabling light rail trains to share the roadway with vehicles and pedestrians. 

The WMATA Metro system is powered by an electrified third rail and must operate in an exclusive right-of-way separated from cars and pedestrians. The Metro operates heavier, longer trains.

The Purple Line will:

• Provide free rides for students, faculty, staff among the 5 UMD stations. 
• Create 1.2 miles of new bike lanes along the Purple Line through campus, from UMGC to Baltimore Avenue.
• Dramatically improve the way students, faculty, staff and visitors access campus offering the UMD community easy access to the surrounding region like never before. The Purple Line will link our community to 4 Metro stations, 3 MARC lines, and Amtrak, improving commutes, opening up new opportunities for internships, and giving easier access to nearby amenities. 
• Play a role in the university’s Greater College Park initiative to cultivate a vibrant college town.
• Vastly reduce the number of vehicles operated on campus helping us to achieve our aggressive sustainability goals.

To facilitate the Purple Line travel through campus, three new traffic signals are being installed. During class change, it will take the Purple Line longer to travel through campus. The Purple Line operations team has estimated the travel times for class change based on actual travel times for buses and has developed operating schedules and plans around those estimates. Additional information will be collected during operational testing to fine-tune the operating plans and schedules.

Initial traffic modelling of the light-rail moving through campus showed no concerning impacts on pedestrian or vehicle travel times. Additional information will be available as operational testing is conducted which will allow the Purple Line to adjust its plans and procedures, if needed. 

The Purple Line tracks are embedded in the roadway in many locations, including the core of campus. We urge caution for cyclists, e-scooter riders and wheelchair users when traveling near the tracks due to gaps in the rails. 

• Micromobility vehicles should use the designated bike paths and wheelchair users should use sidewalks. A new permanent bike path is now open on the south side of Campus Drive between Alumni Drive (near Knight Hall) and Turner Hall (see map).
• Yield to pedestrians crossing the bike path.
• Cross the tracks at a 90-degree angle. Crossing tracks at a lower angle can result in wheels becoming stuck in the rail gap.
• Always use caution when traveling near tracks. Avoid the rails when riding parallel to the tracks or your wheels can become stuck in the rail gap.

The safety of our community is a top priority. 

• Light-rail vehicles will be limited to 15 mph through campus (same as all vehicles).
• In most of campus, the Purple Line will share the road with other vehicles and micromobility riders, as in many cities throughout the US and the world. 
• Bollard and chain fencing in busiest areas will channel pedestrians to designated crossings.
• The light-rail vehicles will travel the roadway similar to buses and trucks, obeying traffic signals and stop signs and yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks.
• For micromobility vehicles, 1.2 miles of bike lanes are being provided through the heart of campus so that micromobility riders can stay off the road. 
• There are many operational safety procedures, as mandated by the Federal Transit Administration, that will also ensure safety.  

The security of our community is a top priority. Our campus has a robust security plan (including cameras and frequent patrols) which will be enhanced with the addition of the Purple Line. UMPD is working on an agreement with the Maryland Transit Administration Police, the police authority for the Purple Line, to establish concurrent jurisdiction and a formal framework for coordinating policing of the Purple Line through campus. There are several WMATA Metrobus routes as well as Prince George’s County’s “The Bus” routes coming through campus so the Purple Line will not be the first public transit on campus.

The Purple Line will offer more direct access to campus from locations across D.C., Montgomery County and Prince George’s County and vice versa. With free rides for students, faculty and staff among the five stations on or around the UMD campus, access across campus will greatly improve, offering a new way to get to and from meetings, classes and more. For those who live in surrounding communities that connect to the Purple Line, you will have a new way to get to campus, lessening the impact of driving and parking on a daily basis. In addition, the Purple Line will open doors for students exploring internships and career opportunities throughout Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, reducing the need for a car to get across the region.

Five of the 21 stations will be located directly on or around the UMD campus. Students, faculty and staff of the university will be able to ride the Purple Line for free among those five stations, giving our community fast, efficient access across campus.

No, the project is a state project fully funded by the state of Maryland and the U.S. federal government.

While it’s too early to predict the exact impact on parking, we know the Purple Line will greatly enhance mobility for students, faculty, staff and visitors by connecting UMD directly to Metro, MARC, and Amtrak, and reduce the need for cars on campus.

When light-rail vehicles begin operating, Shuttle-UM bus routes will be adjusted to integrate with the Purple Line. Changes to bus routes will be communicated in advance. 

During the testing of the Purple Line, there will be some temporary road closures. The university will provide updates about traffic impacts on campus as they become available. All changes will be communicated in advance and detours will be put in place. For the most up to date project construction information, visit the official Purple Line site and sign up for updates. For impacts on campus, see UMD Purple Line Campus Construction Notices for details.

For the most up to date construction information, visit http://www.purplelinemd.com. You may sign up for text and email updates at https://mtamarylandalerts.com/purpleline/, and select “College Park.”

The University of Maryland’s M is a treasured landmark on our campus, and a defining marker for students, faculty, staff, alumni and visitors to campus. In preparation for the Purple Line, which will offer the UMD community easy access to the surrounding region like never before, our beloved M found a new home just across the street from where it previously stood. 

The new landscaped M is in a place of prominence as visitors arrive and we welcome Terps home to campus. In its new location, the M provides safer access for iconic photos, no longer requiring people to walk across a busy traffic circle to capture memories.

The university is deeply committed to maintaining a sustainable, green campus. We are working in close coordination with the Purple Line to ensure that new trees will be planted for every tree that is removed during construction. Within one year of the Purple Line’s opening, our goal is to plant more trees on campus than those removed during construction. Our tree planting program will be adjusted as needed to ensure this is the case. We worked with the Purple Line design team to identify trees near the alignment that may successfully remain, as well as trees that are good candidates for successful relocation on campus.

The Purple Line stations will look similar to large bus shelters. As part of the Purple Line Art-in-Transit Program, each station will include art. Information on the art at each station, including conceptual renderings, can be found on the official Purple Line Art-in-Transit website.

Renderings of the exterior and interior of the light rail vehicles are shown below.

Light rail vehicle renderings courtesy MDOT MTA and PLTP

The light-rail vehicles are 140 feet long (about the length of 3.5 buses), and are articulated in 4 places to facilitate turns. The vehicles have a capacity of 430 passengers, and will have designated locations for bicycles on board.

Based on the current schedule, the light-rail vehicles would run every 7.5 minutes during rush hour, every 10 minutes during mid-day hours, and every 15 minutes during off-peak hours (e.g., early morning and late night).

Currently, the light-rail vehicles (LRV) are scheduled to run from 5 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday. These times are when the first or last LRVs leave the stations at the ends of the line (the New Carrollton and Bethesda stations) so the time when the first and last LRVs arrive on campus will be somewhat later. Additional details will be available closer to the beginning of Purple Line operations.