Subject
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Presentation by Montgomery County Department of Transportation on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
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Department
PW - Traffic & Transportation
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Mayor and Council receive a Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) presentation on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
Discussion
Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) will provide a presentation (Attachment 1) to update the Mayor and Council on the Veirs Mill Road (MD 586) and MD 355 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects. Montgomery County’s BRT is a bus-based transit system that will deliver faster, more reliable, and convenient services with the capacity and quality of rail transit. BRT is a national movement towards upgraded bus systems that focus on faster, more convenient and more reliable bus services.
Veirs Mill Road BRT
The MD 586 BRT connects major activity centers Rockville and Wheaton. It consists of a 7.6-mile corridor with 12 stations along Veirs Mill Road and MD 355. Approx. 51,000 residents and 38,900 jobs within half mile of the stations. About half of the route is in the City of Rockville and includes the following stations: Twinbrook Parkway, Atlantic Avenue, Edmonston Drive, Rockville Metro Station, and Montgomery College.
The design of this project was completed in 2025 and the utility construction started in early 2026. MCDOT is currently working to permit the project with various agencies. At the same time, MCDOT is developing a Small Starts Grant Agreement with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and hope to sign it early this Summer. Once the agreement is signed, it will enable MCDOT to move forward and sign a construction contract. Currently, MCDOT is scheduled to continue utility relocation and ROW acquisition through 2026 and into early 2027. MCDOT is also scheduled to start construction in early 2027 and open the project by December 2028. The estimated cost of this project is $230M.
MD 355 BRT
The goal of the MD 355 Flash BRT corridor, identified in the 2013 Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Master Plan, is to provide a new transit service along MD 355 (Wisconsin Avenue/Rockville Pike/Frederick Road) with greater travel speed and frequency. Among the project’s objectives is to create new connections and support growth and redevelopment at key activity centers along the corridor such as Rockville and Gaithersburg. The MD 355 BRT project will implement a roughly 22-mile BRT corridor connecting Bethesda to Clarksburg, primarily along MD 355. The central phase of the MD 355 BRT project is being advanced and consists of a 10-mile corridor between Rockville and Germantown with the following three stations in Rockville: Rockville Metro Station, Montgomery College, and Shady Grove Metro Station.
MCDOT continues to coordinate engineering design reviews with the City of Rockville’s Public Works and Planning staff regarding BRT station locations and access, bicycle and pedestrian facility design, new development coordination, and refinement of right-of-way needs. The proposed bike facilities vary to mostly shared-use paths for the northbound direction and a mix of cycle track and sidewalks for the southbound direction. The city will need to modify its Bikeway Master Plan and the Rockville Pike Plan to match the facilities proposed by the BRT project. Concurrently, MCDOT is coordinating with the FTA regarding submission of the project for federal funding and environmental documentation.
Currently, 35 percent design is complete and MCDOT has a Progressive Design Builder (PDB) under contract to advance design as the delivery method for the project and is currently in scope validation phase to see how to improve the design and make it less impactful and less expensive. Design process is expected to start late this Summer, final design will start in 2026, and construction is planned for 2028-2031, with the service to be open in 2031. The total estimated cost is $517 million. MCDOT is eligible for Federal funding under the FTA’s Capital Investment Grant New Starts program. It should be noted that the capital budget did not include funding for a bus depot or transit center near Mannakee Street.
Mayor and Council History
MCDOT provided a presentation on MD 355 BRT to the Mayor and Council on May 16, 2022, and on January 22, 2024.
Next Steps
Next steps for MCDOT include the following for the MD 586 BRT project: Sign a Small Starts Grant Agreement with FTA in early Summer, followed by a construction contract and utility relocation and ROW acquisition through 2026 and into early 2027. The construction phase is scheduled for early 2027 until December 2028. For the MD 355 BRT project, MCDOT expects to start the design process later this Summer and for the service to be operational in 2031.