For Immediate Release: Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Montgomery Councilmember Leventhal Discusses Purple Line on ‘Raw Fisher’
On Podcast That Begins Today, Councilmember Urges Support for
Light Rail Link Between Bethesda and New Carrollton
ROCKVILLE, January 6, 2009—Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal makes his views known on building a light rail Purple Line on the weekly podcast show of Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher starting today at 12 noon. Town of Chevy Chase Mayor Kathy Strom also will be a guest on the show.
Councilmember Leventhal is a strong proponent of building a light rail system, rather than a bus rapid transport (BRT) system, to link the Bethesda and Silver Spring Metro stations in Montgomery County and the Takoma/Langley Transit Center, University of Maryland, and New Carrollton Metro station in Prince George’s County. The Purple Line will connect two legs of Metro's Red Line, the Green Line and the Orange Line, as well as MARC and Amtrak rail stations. It will provide the missing east-west connectivity currently lacking from the Metro system.
Councilmember Leventhal and Mayor Strom offer their views on the proposed transit extension on the weekly podcast called “Raw Fisher.”
“We need a light rail Purple Line to induce drivers to leave their automobiles at home, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on imported oil. The Purple Line will be a major improvement to Montgomery and Prince George’s County residents' quality of life,” said Councilmember Leventhal. “The Maryland Transit Administration is currently evaluating which mode—rail or bus—and which specific alignment will be most cost-effective and provide the fastest travel times and highest quality commuting experience. I believe light rail offers all of those advantages. I was delighted to have the opportunity to discuss this issue on the washingtonpost.com podcast."
A podcast is an audio file that can be downloaded automatically to a computer, using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to the computer. RSS feeds are free content feeds from Web sites, including washingtonpost.com, that contain article headlines, summaries, links to articles and podcasts.
Podcasts are usually downloaded through a program like iTunes onto an iPod using RSS feeds, but they also can be directly downloaded onto a computer, or listened to in streaming format.
To hear today’s Raw Fisher podcast, access the following url:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/rawfisherradio.xml
The podcast will be continually accessible.