Rail, in their own words...
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), who also addressed chamber of commerce members Jan. 25 in Richmond, said he opposes the Metrorail project's second phase because it is a "boondoggle." According to projections made for eight sample trips, half of them would be no faster than driving, he said.
"It is a real estate deal, not a transportation project,"
Former Virginia congressman and vice chairman of the MWAA board Tom Davis:
September 19, 2011
Davis: Phase 2 Will Bring Higher Density, Higher Tolls to Reston
"There are three certainties about Phase 2," said Davis, a member of the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) board. "
It will bring higher density and higher tolls, and the county will have higher operating expenses.
"We are working to keep tolls as low as possible," he said.
"No one can tell you with a straight face what the tolls may be."
Phase 2 is not getting federal money. About one-quarter of the price tag - which officials are trying to keep at $2.5 billion - will be paid for by Fairfax and Loudoun Counties and MWAA. The rest will come from Toll Road users, which has
some people predicting tolls of $10 to $20. (one way)
"At the end of the day, I would bet my house that this will get done," said Davis.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli,
"According to projections made for eight sample trips, half of them would be
no faster than driving..." he said.
“It is a real estate deal, not a transportation project..."
Longtime Fairfax County developer Til Hazel,
September 19, 2011
said, at the (Biznow) conference, figuring out who is going to pay is a paramount issue.
"It's not being addressed by the political sector," he said. "It needs to be addressed much more than this enthusiastic 'we are going to build a train to Dulles!' Everyone says 'tolls will pay for it.' That is absolute nonsense."
MWAA Board member, Robert Clarke BrownMr. Brown said
SPECIAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING on page 3
Minutes of November 16, 2011
... he was grateful that Secretary LaHood had convened the
group and forced the parties to sit down and work out the issues. He
had long been a supporter of the rail project, as had Ms. Reiley. He was
fully supportive of the project. He was, however, disappointed with the
outcome after four months of negotiation. He had hoped that the
process would identify additional funding sources. He had thought the
MOA negotiation would have provided a forum to do so, and was
disappointed it had not.
In four months, there had not been any
progress in reducing tolls. In fact, there had been some backsliding from
July.
Chairman York's Board of Supervisors Reports
4-01-2011
The
Loudoun Board of Supervisors remains
extremely concerned with the escalation of the project costs associated with Dulles Phase 2 Metrorail. In September 2010, MWAA announced that the
project costs had escalated from $2.5 billion at the 65% design stage to $3.8 billion at the 80% design stage—a 52% increase.
...Fairfax County’s share stands at approximately 17.2% for Phase 2 only. However, our 8.3% share equates to hundreds of millions of dollars as evidenced by Loudoun’s estimated project share costs increasing from
$240 million at beginning design to nearly $316 million at the 80% design stage—a nearly 32% increase. Furthermore, approximately 67% of the entire funding stream for the Dulles Phase 2 Metrorail will be obtained through tolls on the Dulles Toll Road by MWAA. Loudoun County believes that approximately 40 to 50% of motorists on this toll road are Loudoun County residents.
November 16, 2011
Loudoun got everything it wanted in the latest agreement, according to Loudoun County Board chair Scott York. "This was about reducing the scope of the project, in terms of the dollars," he says.
MWAA Board member Bob Brown
6:40 PM, Nov 16, 2011
The cost of the rail project itself has been brought down a billion dollars to $2. 8 billion. The other billion hasn't gone away... it's just moved, as board member
Bob Brown explained,
"The project scope wasn't changed, nothing was reduced, it just got pushed off to the counties." watch the video
here at the 1:00 mark
Brown predicted that tolls could climb to $16.75 per trip in a few decades, compared with $2 now, as a 2009 study also showed.
Jim Burton, Former Loudoun County Supervisor,
The Blue Ridge District
from Jim Burton's website
But board member Jim Burton, one of the two opposing votes, says the funding still depends far too much on rising Dulles toll road revenues, which will mean more commuters looking for non-tolled roads.
"They will drop off the toll road, saturate our side roads, and we'll be left with some other way to try to bail out financially," Burton says.
Burton served on: •Finance/Government Services and Operations Committee. Served on this committee for 15 out of the past 16 years, serving as Chair from 2000 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2011.
During my term on the committee, the County’s bond rating increased from Aa to Aa+ to AAA•Fiscal Impact Committee Chairman
Nick Samuels, Moody’s lead analyst for Virginia
Moody’s moved Virginia and all municipalities with a AAA rating — the highest possible rating — to a “negative” outlook in August
Dec. 9, 2011
“
Virginia’s reliance on federal employment and the federal economy as a percentage of its GDP is significantly higher than the national average,”
Patrick Forrest, Republican candidate
Posted on Wed, 2011-09-07
The $17 (toll) number comes from an MWAA powerpoint presentation to USDOT July 11, 2011 that has surfaced recently.
Patrick Forrest the Republican candidate says he "completely supports" the rail project but that $17 tolls are "completely unacceptable."
They will harm the economic viability of the region, congest side streets, and cost the average commuter $7,000/year. "It is a recipe to run business and jobs out of town," he says in a political ad, urging support for the petition against $17 tolls.
Another source for the $17 round trip toll is MWAA's finance chairman Robert Brown who wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that these tolls would be needed by 2040. He said
a "double digit toll" would be needed within ten years of the rail line opening.
Tony Howard, President & CEO Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce
In a July 5 Letter to the Editor----
Given that 90 percent of Phase 2 of the Dulles Rail Project is funded by Virginia's taxpayers, commuters and businesses, I can not fathom why a Loudoun Supervisor would support this type of discriminatory treatment against Virginia's contractors and construction workers.
Consistently voted the top state in the nation to do business, Virginia enjoys this reputation in part because of our "Right to Work" laws that prohibit forcing an individual to join a labor union just to keep their job.
A mandated PLA on Phase 2 is completely contrary to these and other policies that have given Loudoun County an unemployment rate that is now below 4 percent, compared with double-digit unemployment that reigns in much of the country. There should be no confusion about that.
Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall
from Bob's website
Virginia officials, including then Governor Kaine, ignored a 2002 US Government Accountability Office report highly critical of
MWAA’s secretive contracting practices and cost overruns. GAO questioned “whether the Authority obtained the best value in the marketplace for the goods and services that the Authority acquired through contracts.”
Of $408 million in contracts examined by GAO, MWAA
failed to obtain open competition for 15 of 35 contracts. GAO said because MWAA fails to apply “generally recognized principles underlying the concept of full and open competition,” this “could convey an appearance of favoritism in its contracting decisions.”
GAO’s review was severely limited because MWAA “did not have a centralized database of its concession contracts or documented procedures for awarding these contracts.” Also, since MWAA has refused to even comment on the GAO’s corrective procurement suggestions, GAO said MWAA would be reluctant on its own to correct the procurement problems: “This is particularly
troublesome given that the Authority recently embarked upon a multibillion- dollar construction program at Dulles.” And this was before the multibillion dollar VDOT-MWAA memo signed March 24.
How can this happen? MWAA is a creation of Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, and the federal government.
Frank Wolf Member of Congress
from his website
Fighting these straightforward and
bipartisan changes to the board not only adds to MWAA's expenses, but
continues what a recent Washington Post editorial said is "a virtuoso display of tone-deaf politics, at least partly as a result of the lack of accountability by the unelected, 13-member board that sets policy for the authority."
I urge the board to immediately accept the changes in PL 112-55 so the region can once again have confidence that the airports and the Dulles Rail project have sound management.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Joe May opposes implicit tax
(before going along with tansfer of Dulles Toll Road to MWAA)
May is chairman of the House of Delegates Transportation Appropriations subcommittee and has senior standing on the Transportation Committee.
"What VDOT and the Commonwealth Transportation Board are proposing for commuters on the Dulles Toll Road is, in reality,
not a fee increase but an implicit tax increase," May wrote. "They are attempting to impose this tax while avoiding substantive public debate and preventing elected officials from going on the record."
John Locke
"MEN being,..by Nature, all free, equal, and independent no one can be put out of this Estate, and subjected to the political Power of another, without his own Consent. The only Way whereby any one devests himself of (gives up) his natural Liberty, and puts on the Bonds of civil Society is by agreeing with other Men to joyn and unite into a Community, for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable Living one amongst another, in a secure Enjoyment of their Properties, and a greater Security against any, that are not of It."
Thanks for the candor gentlemen.
David LaRock
Hamilton, Virginia
