The Most Senseless Transportation Project Ever?

...but Dulles Rail is the sweetest of real estate deals for a few influential land owners. When too much money gets in the hands of a few powerful elected people, the taxpayers get fleeced.


A little more history. Rail to Dulles was always contemplated. A wide median was left in the middle of the Airport Access Road (AAR) to accommodate rail. The original plan was to build rail solely in that median, with various stops along the way, including one at Tysons. There was concern the area to be served by rail was not dense enough to support heavy rail. To address that issue and also to enrich Tysons landowners, the plan was modified to run rail through Tysons with three stations being built. (Then chairman of the Fairfax County BoS and SAIC employee, Gerry Connolly, had the plan modified to add a 4th station stop in front of SAIC’s Tysons building.) But this left the "Who will pay for it?" unresolved.

"Here’s the problem: Rates for the Dulles Toll Road are not being set by a determination of what it costs to maintain and upgrade the toll road. Rates are not set by a calculation of what drivers are willing to pay. Rates are driven by how much money it takes to build Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles heavy rail project.

That project is estimated to cost $2.7 billion. Under the current funding agreement, 75% of the sum will be extracted from drivers on the toll road. Unless the General Assembly coughs up new subsidies, tolls for traveling the full length of the toll road will reach $4.50 by 2013 and escalate steadily to $10.75 by 2028.

“That’s going to drive a large portion of toll-road traffic to local roads, and the local roads are already crowded. The congestion will be that much worse, Terry Maynard, a board member of the Reston 2020 Committee and co-author of “The Dulles Corridor Transportation Planning Fail,” said last week.

Metrorail has been touted as a way to relieve overloaded Northern Virginia roads. In an irony of ironies, Maynard and his buddies contend, more drivers will be diverted to local roads than will be added to the Metrorail ridership! If it’s any consolation, the toll road itself will be a lot less crowded.

Let me repeat that in capital letters so you don’t miss the point: VIRGINIA WILL HAVE SPENT $5-6 BILLION ON A RAIL PROJECT THAT WILL MAKE TRAFFIC CONGESTION WORSE THAN IT WAS BEFORE!

That’s a truly breathtaking level of incompetence."...or malevolence...or both.

David LaRock

Hamilton Virginia