A New Emphasis on Rail to Dulles
Authority Sees Bid to Take On Project as Key to Airport's Future

By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 28, 2005

The effort by the Washington airports authority to speed construction of a rail line across Northern Virginia is a reminder to the region that the railroad's planners intended the train to serve air travelers as well as commuters.

As the project progressed slowly in recent years and struggled to gain financial support, much of the debate on its value has focused on how useful it would be to suburban workers. The current financing plan would extend rail only through Tysons Corner in Fairfax County.

But last week, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said it wants to take over the rail program from the Virginia government. That fixed new attention on the theory that a Metro station at Dulles International Airport could help keep the airport growing at a time when more people want to use the airport but find it harder and harder to deal with the traffic to get there.

"When we look at the region, transportation is becoming increasingly more challenging on roadways," said James E. Bennett, president and chief executive of the airports authority, which operates Reagan National and Dulles. "So for us to make sure Dulles continues to service that customer, we need to say, 'What is an alternative to get people out here?' It's the rail link."

Bennett has come to the same conclusion as many others in the airport industry who see rail as a necessary part of the airport of tomorrow.

"Airports used to live by themselves and didn't worry much about the outside world," said William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, who said 16 major airports across the country have rail links. "Increasingly, airports are realizing they need to be in the game. They need to figure out how their employees will get there. They realize there's a competitive advantage for easy access to a much wider swath of the metro area."

In Denver, voters approved a sales tax increase last year to raise $700 million to build a 23.6-mile rail link to the airport. Supporters said it was needed because only a single, congested highway connected the city to its airport.

In 2001, Portland, Ore., extended a $125 million light-rail line to its airport using local and private dollars. Nearly a million people used the airport stop last year, according to the city's transportation authority.

The Dulles project, which planners had hoped would be completed by 2004, would extend Metro's Orange Line 23 miles from West Falls Church through Tysons Corner and along the Dulles Toll Road to the airport and into Loudoun County. The most recent target date is 2015.

Bennett said he envisions it not only serving fliers but also turning Dulles into an outer suburban employment and transportation hub similar to the Pentagon, which is served by Interstate 395, a Metro stop and several bus lines. The Pentagon is also a major transfer point for carpoolers.

Plans for the extension have gone slower than others across the country, in large part because the project -- estimated to cost $3.84 billion -- is one of the most expensive in the nation and relies on federal funding. Eliminating the need for federal money, as the authority proposes, would speed the process considerably by removing several layers of review and potential delay that have become common on most large transportation projects.

The idea for a new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, for instance, first sprouted in 1988, and it took 11 years for the federal and local governments to pull funding and design plans together before construction began. The first of its two spans is expected to open in May, although the entire project, including highway interchanges, won't be finished until 2011.

"The choice was made here to use federal money to build the line," Millar said. "But that brings with it a very, very long and arduous planning process and a planning process where the parameters of how a project is judged changes over the 10 years it runs its course."

The rail project's high cost has led opponents to question whether it's worth it, especially when, they argue, rapid bus service would be much cheaper and equally effective.

"Studies looked at from various airports around the country show passengers do not use rail in high numbers," said Ken Reid, a leader of an anti-rail movement. "The problem is the airports authority has a very 1950s or '60s idea of what this will do for them."

The Dulles plan has also lagged because of uncertainty surrounding its funding and scope.

The financing plan calls for 50 percent to be paid by the federal government, 25 percent by the state and 25 percent by communities.

Cost concerns led planners to split the project into two phases, with a first phase running through the Tysons Corner complex of stores, offices and residences. There are no assurances that the second half -- extending the line through the airport -- will be funded.

The price of the first half of the project is about $300 million over budget. Also, the federal government has yet to commit to its share, and property owners along the second half of the route have not agreed to tax themselves to generate money for the local share.

The airports authority released a plan last week that aims to eliminate many of those concerns by taking over the Dulles Toll Road from the state government and using its revenue to fund Virginia's portion of the rail line as well as the state and federal share of the second phase.

Bennett has said rates on the road would rise "regularly" to keep pace with inflation and pay off bonds used to finance the project. Tolls now range from 50 to 75 cents.

The airports authority is in competition with several private proposals to operate the toll road, but the authority has some clout: It owns the land under the road.

A study of the proposed Dulles rail line estimated that 6 percent of airport users would ride it in 2015. Bennett said that would translate to about 2.4 million of the 40 million customers Dulles expects to serve in 10 years.

No airport in the country attracts more rail users than National, where about 3.2 million fliers, or 17.6 percent, come by Metro each year, airport officials said.

About 1.4 million people a year use rail to get to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, about 60 percent on a light-rail line from Baltimore and the rest on an Amtrak link from Union Station in the District.

Bennett said he thinks that the estimates for Dulles are low and, regardless, that rail is about providing options.

"For an airport to be successful in the long term, it needs to have multimodal access, especially in a large metropolitan region such as we have," he said. "It's just not reasonable to expect and believe in the future that for everyone that wants to use Dulles Airport, the only way is by private automobile."