For Paul Stregevsky, the Purple Line light rail is an important vehicle, but not for the usual reasons.

Instead of worrying about ridership numbers and travel times, Stregevsky believes the project represents the chance for post-racial progress and the weakening of class divisions. The 52-year-old Department of Homeland Security employee from Poolesville is so convinced of this that he has given the idea artistic expression, in the form of a two-hour, 18-minute musical called "Tracks."

"My main goal was to promote the brotherhood of man," said Stregevsky, who began writing down the early plot lines of "Tracks" about four years ago, and began his DHS job in Washington, D.C. in part to use mass transit and research the people who ride it.

He also enlisted the help of longtime Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School music teacher Marshall White and several students to help bring the musical to life. Stregevsky connected to White through a music teacher in Poolesville.

"I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into," recalled White, who wrote much of the music at his Baltimore home with Stregevsky at his side.

Stregevsky also has tallied the racial mix of the ridership that uses the New Carrollton Metro stop to ensure that the 21 characters in the musical represent its setting in Prince George's County. The personalities include a flirtatious Asian-American math professor, a Jewish songwriter, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, and an Iranian official at the World Bank.

"It kind of reminded me of ‘Rent,' sort of bringing all these different people together," said Naomi Roochnik, 17, a senior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase who played an older Latina woman in the play during a fundraising audition more than two years ago. "It was a lot of fun working on it because there were a lot of different personalities supposed to be portrayed in the show."

Stregevsky is not shy about belting out tunes from "Tracks," or talking about his ambitions for the musical, its potential shortcomings and his struggles with it. He has entered the show in the Strathmore Music Center's 25th Anniversary Giveaway contest, where the winning artistic entry (set to be announced this month) will get to use any Strathmore facility for a day during the 2009-2010 season.

After spending about $8,000 on the project, it has been stalled for a year due to lack of funds, Stregevsky said. The musical initially received financial support from Purple Line Now, a pro-light rail group. But Stregevsky has faith in what he calls the positive energy of his creation.

"Tracks" is set in 2014 when the Purple Line, a 16-mile proposed light rail project running from Bethesda and New Carrollton via Silver Spring, has supposedly been completed. Most of the action and the 23 musical numbers take place on the platform of an isolated station at the extreme end of the line. The transit authority has announced that unless at least 18 riders use the station every day, it will close.

The station's loyal users, aware that just a few of them could decide the fate of the station, welcome a newcomer, Duran Longshaw, a Lexus driver in withdrawal who is bitter about taking the train. Longshaw learns the ways and habits of transit users and grows to love the Purple Line, and sheds his class snobberies.

Along the way, several of the characters fall in love. Longshaw marries a woman who sells flowers at the station, while the Jewish songwriter dates the Iranian banker. And in the end, the station is saved.

"I'm a romantic. I don't see any venue that isn't romantic," said Stregevsky, whose second song in the play contains the line: "From the moment that you ride it/you'll feel the love inside it/When riding with friends like these."

Stregevsky admits that while the play tries to express a melting pot society, some of his characters can come across as stereotypical cardboard cutouts of races or cultures. He wants additional input to help smooth over their rough parts.

He also has mixed feelings about taking money from Purple Line Now. While he appreciates the funding, supports light rail, and said the group made good revisions, independence is his natural aspiration.

"I think every artist would love to get money, no strings attached," Stregevsky said.

In the same way, while he and White would like to see the play performed locally and he is proud of its current "all Maryland" status, Broadway is his dream for the show, Stregevsky said.

Roochnik said that though she'd like to be in the play wherever it's eventually performed, she hopes it succeeds regardless of her involvement.

"I'll just be happy to go see it wherever," she said.