Residents Balk at Toll Increase

Dozens of residents and local politicians spoke out Tuesday against a toll increase on the Dulles Greenway during a pair of public hearings in Leesburg, referring repeatedly to the proposal as "unfair" and tantamount to "highway robbery."

Each speaker was sworn in before addressing Howard P. Anderson Jr., a hearing examiner with the State Corporation Commission who will study the issue and recommend whether the commission should accept or deny the request by the roadway's owner.

Toll Road Investors Partnership II is seeking to raise the fare on the 14-mile Greenway incrementally over the next five years, with the toll increasing by January 2012 to $4.80 for a passenger car traveling one way during rush hour.

The company says that the road's benefit to drivers -- in savings in time, gas and vehicle repairs -- would outweigh that payment. And it contends that it is entitled to raise the toll under the state law that authorized the Greenway's construction as the first privately owned highway in Virginia since the Civil War.

But the vast majority of Tuesday's speakers disagreed. Some accused the company, which has yet to turn a profit on the Greenway and has seen its debt more than triple since the road was opened in 1995, of trying to balance its ailing finances on the backs of Loudoun County residents.

"I don't see that the traveling public is obligated to help the Greenway out of the very deep hole it has dug for itself," said John A. Andrews II, who resigned recently from the Loudoun County School Board and is running for the state Senate.

Andrews, who has started a Web site ( http://notollincrease.org) to organize opposition to the higher toll, called on the state commission to release details about the company's debt so residents can comment on the information.

Among the public officials speaking against the toll increase at the hearings were U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), Leesburg Town Council member Fernando J. "Marty" Martinez and Loudoun Supervisors Scott K. York (I), Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles) and Lori L. Waters (R-Broad Run). AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce also oppose TRIP II's application.

Many residents living along the Greenway testified that the current $2.70 one-way toll is already too high, forcing them onto congested Route 7. Some complained that although they drive only a portion of the road, they must pay the same flat fee as motorists who drive the full distance from Dulles International Airport to Leesburg.

They painted a picture of a highway that may have begun as a high-speed alternative to sleepy back roads but has evolved into an essential main artery through the eastern half of the county.

"It's not a nicety; it's become a necessity," said Kevin Shumelda, a technical recruiter who lives in Ashburn. "You need to think about some of the people who have moved out here to have a halfway-decent quality of life."

Joyce Hart, who lives in Purcellville, told Anderson: "I actually can't threaten to boycott the Greenway. I have no choice."