Montgomery County’s first Bus Rapid Transit station is under construction

TransitBy Dan Malouff (Editorial Board) February 12, 2019

Image by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

Montgomery County's long anticipated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is now visibly under construction. This photo shows the Briggs Chaney Park and Ride station, where officials broke ground for the Route 29 BRT line in October 2018.

The Route 29 line will upgrade existing buses with a new brand (the Flash), more frequent buses, transit signal priority, and better stations with off-board fare payment and level boarding. It doesn't include a dedicated busway, except for highway-shoulder bus lanes that already exist today. If all goes according to plan, passengers will start riding in early 2020.

So far, the most visible construction is at the Briggs Chaney Park and Ride, the northernmost station for the orange route shown on this map:

US-29 BRT map. Image by Montgomery County.

When it's complete, the station will look roughly like this:

Rendering of the Burtonsville BRT station, which shares a similar design with Briggs Chaney.