Montgomery County Approves $49.8 Billion Metro 'Aqua Line'
ROCKVILLE, MD - The Montgomery County Council approved a landmark $49.8 billion capital infrastructure package yesterday to construct a new Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) subway transit corridor: the Metro Aqua Line.
The Aqua Line will span from White's Ferry down to Rosslyn, Virginia, addressing a critical regional transit deficit along the 35-mile-long upper Potomac River corridor in western Montgomery County. Five primary station locations include White's Ferry, Travilah, Cabin John, Glen Echo, and Brookmont, with construction phased over the coming decades.
According to planning documents, the mostly underground line's construction will involve deep-bore tunneling beneath the Potomac riverbed, with 11 miles of the 35-mile line on elevated tracks above the C&O Canal National Historical Park.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich called the 50-billion-dollar commitment an essential investment in regional equity. "For decades, the disadvantaged residents of western Montgomery County have had virtually no high-capacity public transit options," Elrich said. "The Aqua Line brings long-overdue mass transit access to these historically underserved neighborhoods."
County officials said that half of project funding will come from a 22-year diversion of transportation and school improvement funds, coupled with a 59-cent gasoline tax increase, 4.9 percent property tax bump, $500 per-household annual renter's occupancy permit, and a new $692 per-student yearly Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) enrollment fee. Officials are hoping to get support from regional partners for the remaining half of project costs.
“I hope that our colleagues in Loudoun County and the Commonwealth of Virginia take note of this major shift, and see their way to contribute the funding needed to start the service, and we stand ready to work with them to achieve that goal,” Elrich said.
A spokesperson for WMATA told Montgomery Leek the transit agency wasn’t aware of the plan and was not invited to Monday’s news conference.
