DALLAS –- Maryland's $5.6 billion Purple Line light-rail public-private partnership project is on a financing fast track with the official announcement of a long-anticipated $874.6 million low-interest federal loan.
However, a group of Maryland residents who oppose the project are trying to get a federal judge to halt it until a study is completed of how the Metrorail's ridership is being affected by safety problems and repairs.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced the awarding of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan to Purple Line Transit Partners LLC late Wednesday.
The international consortium will build the Purple Line and then operate it for 30 years under a concession agreement it signed in April with the Maryland Transit Administration.
The official confirmation of the TIFIA loan means that the financial closure of the concession contract will come soon with the approval of final agreements between the private partnership and its subcontractors and insurance providers, said Erin Henson, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The private partners will finance their share of the construction costs with the TIFIA loan and $323 million of tax-exempt private activity bonds issued by the Maryland Economic Development Corp.
The PABs and the TIFIA loan earned a BBB-plus from S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.
Maryland DOT will own the rail facilities and retain the fare revenues. The private partnership will receive annual availability payments expected to average $150 million per year during the 30-year concession agreement.
Construction of the 16.3-mile system in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in suburban Washington is expected to cost $2 billion and take six years. The light-rail system is to be completed by March 2022.
Foxx said the new rail line would provide area residents with improved access to employment centers, educational opportunities, and medical facilities.
"The Washington metropolitan region is one of the most congested areas in the country, and viable transportation alternatives are needed to accommodate a growing population," he said.
The Federal Transit Administration expects to sign this summer a full funding grant agreement with MTA for a $900 million New Starts capital investment grant for the Purple Line, said acting administrator Carolyn Flowers.
"The Purple Line will help residents access one of the state's largest job centers as well as its flagship state university without having to drive on heavily congested roads," she said. "The Purple Line's unique public-private partnership allows the state of Maryland to better leverage federal funding."
The Purple Line will run east and west through the Maryland suburbs. It will connect with three Metro rail lines operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, all three lines of the Maryland Area Regional Commuter rail system, and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line.
Lawyers for a group of Maryland residents who oppose the Purple Line said this week in oral arguments before a U.S. District Court in Washington that the project should be halted to determine if the Metro system's maintenance problems would reduce its projected ridership. The plaintiffs filed a federal environmental lawsuit in 2014 to stop the light-rail project.
Passengers that use Metro for a portion of their journeys are expected to account for up to a third of Purple line riders.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said a six-month project moratorium so the state could assess the effects of Metro's maintenance woes would be reasonable.
"We've experienced here in the District of Columbia, in the last month and a half, safety issues that appear to be of epic proportion in the entire system that appear to have shown a long-term impact on ridership," Leon said in court on Wednesday. "I would think these recent major developments, with all the possible impacts they could have on ridership, would be something that might really be valuable to know."
Leon said he will not make a decision until he reviews the briefs to be filed later this month by the parties.
