With the State of Maryland debating a new rapid transit line outside Washington, D.C., EMBARQ and the World Resources Institute conducted a study that showed that bus rapid transit was a better option than light rail for the proposed route.

The Purple Line, as it is known, is a proposed 16-mile, east-west transit corridor running parallel to the Capital Beltway in Maryland, and is intended to ease congestion and improve area mass-transit options. The two primary modes under consideration are light rail transit (LRT), which features electric streetcars on rails, or bus rapid transit (BRT), which features designated lanes and other enhancements to make trips faster and more comfortable for riders than conventional buses.

WRI submitted its analysis to the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) in January 2009. It compares BRT and LRT in the “medium investment” range, and confirms that BRT would be more cost-effective and lower-risk. In addition, WRI’s analysis confirms that BRT is the only option that would work locally to fight global warming, with a medium-investment system cutting carbon dioxide emissions by almost 9,000 metric tons per year, equivalent to taking about 1,600 cars off the road.

Despite controversy surrounding the two modes of transport - with light rail often seen as the local favorite - EMBARQ and WRI maintain that any public transit investment is better than none.

“The effort to create any kind of sustainable transit solution in the D.C. area is commendable," said Greg Fuhs, lead author of the WRI analysis, "but it should be done the right way."