"In downtown Silver Spring, paving, sidewalks and most traffic signal activations are complete, with testing anticipated later this year." Ray Biggs II, a senior director at the Maryland Transit Administration, said this at a Montgomery County Council briefing this month, as Source of the Spring reported on October 11.
That sentence matters more for daily life downtown than any opening date. Service is still slated for winter 2027. Biggs called that date "dynamic," depending on safety testing, and when Councilmember Evan Glass asked about April 2028, Biggs said it "can go either way." The streets have their own schedule, and it is far closer. Between now and the first paying rider, downtown Silver Spring moves out of heavy construction and into a quieter in-between stretch of finished pavement, overnight wire work and trains running tests on tracks the public can't ride yet.
Most of the heavy work is already done
MTA said on September 3 that the project was 92% complete, with vehicle testing underway on more than half the 16-mile alignment. In Silver Spring, that shows up as smooth asphalt. According to MTA's statement to Source of the Spring, Wayne Avenue, University Boulevard and Kenilworth Avenue have been milled down and then repaved and restriped. Wayne Avenue paving from Fenton Street to Manchester Place is finished. What's left on that stretch is overhead catenary wiring, testing and landscaping.
Not every change is temporary. On the project's construction updates page, Bonifant Street East is listed as permanently reduced to eastbound one-way traffic. Bonifant Street West stays closed to cars between Ramsey Avenue and Georgia Avenue for the rest of construction, though pedestrians can still get through. The Dixon Avenue and Bonifant Street intersection is closed through October for track installation, with garage, business and pedestrian access maintained. Anyone who learned to drive around Bonifant over the past two years will need to relearn that block for good, not just until the trains start.
Farther east, at the Long Branch station, Arliss Street remains closed between Piney Branch Road and Garland Avenue. The project expects this phase of work to end in fall 2026.
The bridge that is finished but not yet open
The Spring Street Bridge closed for reconstruction in summer 2024 and was supposed to reopen in January 2025. Then came delays from moving overhead utilities, building a new foundation and working around CSX and Metro train schedules.
MTA now calls the bridge "substantially complete" and says it "will soon carry traffic." It still has no reopening date, because several items have to be completed with Montgomery County first. For people who have spent more than two years detouring around it, the honest answer is that it's close and not yet scheduled.
The rest of the disruption happens at night
The work left on Wayne Avenue is mainly stringing the overhead wires that will power the trains. Crews are doing it as a series of rolling overnight closures, so daytime traffic is mostly unaffected. Here is the schedule Source of the Spring published on October 7:
- October 25 to November 6. Nightly closures of Wayne Avenue between Dale Drive and Manchester Road.
- November 8 to 20. Nightly closures of Wayne Avenue from Fenton Street to Dale Drive, in two stages: first Fenton Street to Cedar Street, then Cedar Street to Dale Drive.
- On or about November 22 to December 1. The Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street intersection closes nightly from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. This closure was supposed to start in early October and was pushed back.
Bus riders will feel the Wayne and Fenton closure most. Ride On routes 15, 16, 17, 20 and 28 will detour while it's in effect. On route 15 toward the Takoma Langley Transit Center, the eastbound stops at Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street and at 824 Wayne Avenue will be skipped, and riders are directed to Silver Spring Transit Center Bay 222 or the eastbound stop at Wayne Avenue and Cedar Street. John Undeland of Purple Line Transit Partners told the outlet that "weather and other unforeseen issues may impact these dates," so the schedule could still shift.
The Wayne and Fenton closure should end around December 1. After that, the scheduled Wayne Avenue closures are done, though the long-term Bonifant Street West closure stays in place through construction.
Living next to a train that isn't carrying anyone yet
Once the wires are live, trains start showing up. A September 9 Purple Line NOW newsletter said residents might see light-rail vehicles during live-wire testing near the future Manchester Place and Silver Spring Library stations. For the next year or more, downtown will have trains on its streets that you can't board.
The project's testing safety guidance and its live-wire testing fact sheet include a few points that may surprise people used to Metro trains in a fenced corridor:
- Trains may be quiet. The fact sheet says a test vehicle can sound much like a car or truck. Operators may also test horns and bells.
- Movements can happen at any hour. The testing page warns that vehicles may move at any time, day or night.
- Intersections are closed briefly for each crossing. Test vehicles cross only when police or flaggers have stopped traffic for a short time, and message signs stay up for the testing period.
- The overhead wires are always considered live. The guidance says everyone should treat the high-voltage wires as energized and dangerous. Pedestrians and scooter or bike riders should use crosswalks and obey crossing signals.
Residents who want to ask about testing on their own block can attend the Silver Spring Community Advisory Team meeting on Thursday, October 22, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Microsoft Teams, with captions available in multiple languages. Long Branch has its own session on October 21, and Lyttonsville and Woodside meet on October 13. MTA says the meetings will cover upcoming milestones and expanded testing in 2027.
The trail comes back after the streets
The Capital Crescent Trail extension is the slowest piece for anyone who walks or bikes. When finished, it will be a 12-foot paved path linking the existing trail at Lyttonsville to downtown Silver Spring, with underpasses that include one at Spring Street. A separate Green Trail on Wayne Avenue will connect Sligo Creek Trail to Fenton Street.
In its May 2026 construction status report to the General Assembly, MTA projected that trail construction would wrap up in fall 2026 and said the trail would stay closed to walkers and cyclists until then. It left open the possibility of opening sections in stages during 2026, with the full trail reopening in 2027. That timeline replaces the spring 2026 reopening estimates that circulated last year. Crews were laying Green Trail asphalt on Wayne Avenue in late March, but no official date has been published for when particular sections will open.
The trail follows the same pattern as the streets, only further behind. The pavement is going down well before people can actually use it.
The businesses that stayed open through it
Fenton Village and Bonifant Street businesses absorbed the worst of the construction. In January 2025, Bethesda Magazine reported that construction fencing was hiding storefronts such as Café via Roma, Edible Arrangements, Salon Zoma and Sunshine Smiles Dental Care, and that customers struggled to find their way in. Source of the Spring reported in June 2025 that Mandalay opened a takeout and delivery location in Ivy City while keeping its Silver Spring restaurant open.
Café via Roma, at 911 Bonifant, closed temporarily in June 2025 and came back that October with limited hours. By the end of December, Source of the Spring reported that it had brought back late-evening service as Purple Line work eased.
Some construction relief has reached affected businesses through a state program. The Purple Line Small Business Grant Program, funded by Purple Line Transit Partners, launched in 2025 and runs through 2028, offering eligible businesses grants of up to $50,000. Its first 2026 round awarded $500,000. Downtown recipients named by Source of the Spring in July were Kefa Café, which recently marked its 30th anniversary, Kook Kai's Thai Noodles, Fenton Citgo and Arepas Pues. Applications for the second 2026 round closed July 31, and businesses have to apply again for each round.
Kefa Café, Kook Kai's Thai Noodles, Arepas Pues and Fenton Citgo had to be open and customer-facing to qualify for those grants, and the program's eligibility rules require a location within a quarter mile of the alignment. Downtown paving and sidewalks are now complete, and the trains on the alignment won't carry riders until service begins, currently slated for winter 2027.
If you live near the Purple Line and wonder how the finished line, the one-way Bonifant Street or the reopened trail might affect your home's value someday, Mandana Tavakoli follows these changes block by block across Silver Spring and would be glad to talk them through with you. Let's Connect.
