Montgomery County planners are proposing a scaled-back bus rapid transit system after an outside firm found the original proposal wouldn't justify its cost.
The county had planned to install a 160-mile rapid bus network at a cost of between $8 billion and $10 billion. But the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy found that ridership wouldn't be high enough to justify such an expansive system. The New York firm was commissioned by the county to study the proposal.
County transportation planner Larry Cole has now proposed a 79-mile network with eight routes, The Washington Examiner reports. There's no estimate of how much the smaller system would cost.
County Executive Ike Leggett says if new studies find the network isn't feasible, it won't be built.
Montgomery County Proposes Scaled-Back Rapid-Bus Network
County had planned to install a 160-mile rapid bus network at a cost of between $8 billion and $10 billion
Copyright The Associated Press
