Trolleys are also called light rail, and, when they run on city streets, streetcars. To reduce our dependence on foreign oil supplies, this is where urban transportation investment ought to go, instead of into more freeways, parking structures, and other automobile infrastructure. Tom Mathews Transportation Issue Chair, Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter --------------------------------------- Subj: Fw: Montgomery Council Backs Trolley Plan Date: 03-02-06 11:42:35 EST From: [log in to unmask] (Eric Bruun) Sender: [log in to unmask] (Sierra Club Forum on Transportation Issues) Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (Sierra Club Forum on Transportation Issues) To: [log in to unmask] 8:38 AM Subject: FW: Montgomery Council Backs Trolley Plan Fwded news. BV. Subject: Montgomery Council Backs Trolley Plan washingtonpost.com METRO In Brief Wednesday, February 5, 2003; Page B03 MARYLAND Montgomery Council Backs Trolley Plan The Montgomery County Council reaffirmed its support yesterday for a proposal to link Bethesda and Silver Spring by trolley, casting aside an alternative offered by County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) in an attempt to broker a compromise on a Metro Purple Line. The council's 7 to 2 vote was intended to end debate over how to provide train service across Montgomery, despite continued division between the council and Duncan over the routing. The matter now rests with Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), who is to decide by March which major transit projects to submit to the federal government for funding. The council's majority expressed objections to Duncan's proposal and questioned efforts by the county executive and others to steer trains away from the Columbia Country Club and pricey homes in Chevy Chase. Council member George Leventhal (D-At Large) asked whether it was fair to deprive people in Silver Spring, "some of whom clean the homes of the folks who live in Chevy Chase," of the ability to get across the county easily. Duncan called the decision "a disappointment." He, like Ehrlich, has said he opposes the trolley plan because it would take land from popular hiking-and-biking trails. He was joined by council members Howard A. Denis (R-Potomac-Bethesda) and Nancy Floreen (D-At Large). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp