The project’s own narrative reveals a worsening schedule — but the official milestone table hasn’t moved.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
Maryland’s perpetually delayed Purple Line is slipping further behind schedule, according to a state-mandated bimonthly progress report — even as the Maryland Transit Administration presented an unchanged milestone chart to legislators and the public.
The concessionaire Purple Line Transit Partners (PLTP) submitted its February 2026 monthly construction schedule update in March, projecting an overall delay of 78 days past the contractual Revenue Service Availability date of December 30, 2027 — pushing the projected opening to around March 17, 2028. That represents a 20-day deterioration from the prior bimonthly report, which had shown a 58-day delay as of January 2026 data.
MTA attributed the additional slippage to “snowcrete” winter weather conditions — a term for the hardened concrete-like effect of extended cold on construction work — and said it is actively working with PLTP to explore alternative testing sequences to recover time.
But the explanation comes with a notable caveat: the project’s official milestone table, which MTA submits to the legislature’s Joint Chairmen’s Report, showed no change. Delegate Marc Korman (D-Montgomery), who has closely tracked the project, flagged the discrepancy in a public post this week, calling the static chart misleading. The delay is disclosed in the narrative section of the report — not in the milestone table that most lawmakers and members of the public are likely to consult first.
“The project milestone chart has not changed,” Korman wrote, “but I think this is misleading.”
The milestone chart continues to list Revenue Service Availability as “End of 2027” — language that no longer reflects the concessionaire’s own current schedule.
A Pattern of Optimistic Framing
The presentation gap is consistent with how MTA has managed communications throughout the Purple Line’s long construction history. The project broke ground in 2017 with a target opening of spring 2022. It has since survived a contractor collapse, a $250 million settlement, a design-build contractor replacement, pandemic-related supply chain failures, repeated weather delays, and serial schedule amendments — each accompanied by assurances of active mitigation.
The March 2026 JCR report confirmed that as of January 31, overall design and construction stood at 88.8 percent complete. Rail installation had reached 87 percent, with track work on Wayne Avenue still ongoing. The Capital Crescent Trail — whose reopening had itself been pushed from spring to fall 2026 due to continued use as a construction access corridor — stood at just 68.3 percent complete.
In 2023, MTA agreed to provide an additional $148 million to PLTP to allow the project completion date to be pushed back a year to winter 2027. The February 2026 schedule update now shows that date slipping further still.
Moore’s Milestone Visit
The new delay disclosure comes roughly three weeks after Governor Wes Moore joined transit officials in Silver Spring on May 7 for a ceremonial final rail installation. The event marked the 16-mile Purple Line reaching 90 percent completion, with Moore joining officials as the final piece of track was laid connecting Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The visit was part of the administration’s “Delivering for Maryland” tour.
What the ceremony did not address: the concessionaire’s schedule, already showing a 58-day delay at the time of the March JCR report, has since grown to 78 days — and the milestone chart used in official state reporting has not been updated to reflect it.
MTA says it will continue to provide additional information in the next Joint Chairmen’s Report update.
The Numbers
The Purple Line’s original public-private partnership agreement carried a construction cost of approximately $2 billion. The current estimated construction cost stands at roughly $3.4 billion — an increase of $1.4 billion — with a service opening that has moved from March 2022 to, at minimum, early 2028 under PLTP’s current projections.
The bimonthly JCR reports were required by the 2025 General Assembly specifically because of what legislators called “challenges and cost overruns associated with completing construction.” Six reports were requested. The delay disclosed in the most recent report — presented in a narrative section while the milestone table remained static — is precisely the kind of material change the reporting requirement was designed to surface.
Sources: Maryland Transit Administration, 2025 Joint Chairmen’s Report Bimonthly Purple Line Construction Status Report (March 2026); Maryland Transit Administration Bimonthly Purple Line Construction Status Report (May 2026, as cited by Delegate Marc Korman); Purple Line NOW; Railway Age; Mass Transit Magazine.
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