Monday, August 8, was supposed to have been a day of celebration for Maryland’s Purple Line, as state transportation officials and the Federal Transit Administration would officially ink an agreement for a $900 million New Starts grant for the new $5.6 billion light rail system across Washington, D.C.’s northern suburbs.

But because a federal judge has搁置FTA的项目决定记录, the ceremonial pens will stay on the shelf until…well, nobody is really sure when.

这条紫色线似乎准备在今年秋天开始其20亿美元的建设阶段，这是该国首个运输的主要公私合作伙伴之一。去年六月，马里兰州交通运输部和马里兰州公交管理局reached financial close借助Purple Line Transit Partners，LLC，一项为期36年的协议，以设计，建造，运营，资金和维护从贝塞斯达到新卡罗尔顿的16英里21座轻轨系统。

然而,8月3日,一名联邦法官表示同意project opponents, who claimed that long-term ridership calculations in the Purple Line’s Environmental Assessment did not fully consider what has been a sharp decline in rider volume on the trouble-plagued Metrorail system. MTA had already因缺乏透明度而受到批评in how its ridership projections were formulated.

根据MTA估计，尽管Metro是由华盛顿大都会地区运输管理局（Washington Metropolitan Arean Transit Authority）运营的，并使用不同的运输技术，但预计往返铁路系统的转移占2040年紫线乘客的27％。

Metrorail在一年，数百万美元的加速维护计划WMATA和MTA索赔都将有助于恢复系统的安全性和可靠性，并将乘客及时及时恢复到紫色线计划的2022年启动日期。

During testimony in the case earlier this summer, the agency claimed that recalculating the Purple Line’s ridership numbers might delay the project by six months. Because the judge’s order makes the Purple Line ineligible for any federal funding, Maryland is urging FTA to take the case to federal appeals court as quickly as possible.

In addition to the New Starts Grant, the Purple Line had also been OK’d for an $875 million TIFIA loan, and $313 million in Private Activity Bonds issued by the Maryland Economic Development Corporation. Purple Line Transit Partners—made up of Meridian Infrastructure Purple Line, LLC; Fluor Enterprises Inc.; and Star America Purple Line, LLC—was also set to contribute $138 million to get the project underway. There has been no comment from the private partners as to their continued commitment to the project.

这不是紫线的第一次危机，该危机已经讨论了15年以上。环境和社区团体，包括提起诉讼的人，长期以来一直批评Light Rail对邻里的潜在影响和流行的娱乐痕迹，而是提倡公共汽车快速运输选择。只有经过6亿美元的设计，建筑和运营削减之后，加上2015年的当地捐款，州长拉里·霍根（Larry Hogan）（R）认为项目对国家可口的财务风险，批准紫色线，同时取消巴尔的摩的29亿美元轻轨项目。