Tunnel Vision
There's more to the Dulles Metro extension than the Tysons controversy.

Monday, June 25, 2007

LAST WEEK the governing bodies of Fairfax and Loudoun counties committed to funding their portions of the Dulles rail extension, a plan to expand Metrorail services to Dulles International Airport and beyond. Controversy over a proposed elevated track through Tysons Corner has simmered for months, with Tysons landowners and activists pushing for a tunnel through the area instead. Pro-tunnel lobbying was especially fierce in advance of the Fairfax vote, with hundreds of people packing a meeting of the Board of Supervisors at the beginning of the month.

The Fai rfax vote was the right one for Tysons. Elevated or underground, the Dulles extension will bring enormous benefits to the region's "second downtown" in the form of added foot traffic, efficiency and convenience. But lost amid the rhetoric and ire of the Tysons tunnel fight is the importance of the new rail line for the whole of the Dulles corridor and in particular the rapidly expanding airport near the end of the proposed track.

The Dulles extension has existed in blueprints for decades. James E. Bennett, president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, points out that the original designers of the Dulles Airport Access Road wanted to construct such a rail line, but only now are those plans about to be translated into turned dirt and poured cement. Finally.

Beginning construction is critical as the airport grows. Mr. Bennett says that $4 billion worth of improvements and expansion are in the works. In 20 years, it is expected, the number of employees serving the airport will double -- from an already impressive 20,000 to a whopping 40,000 -- as will the number of passengers flying through. Adding rail service will pr ovide these new ranks of employees with an affordable and convenient alternative to driving, which will reduce the future burden on already packed local highways and combat air pollution. Project estimates indicate that the extension will zip airport employees and passengers between Dulles and Rosslyn in about 43 minutes -- a significant improvement over the time spent with existing public transportation.

Mr. Bennett says that about 20 percent of passengers coming from or going to Reagan National Airport use the Blue or Yellow lines, which stop there. He does not anticipate as high a proportion for the Dulles extension, but he points out that if just 8 to 10 percent of the tens of millions of passengers who travel through Dulles annually use the extension, the benefits to the region will be massive. He's right. It's about time everyone from summer Capitol Hill interns to K Street consultants have the option of hopping on the train and arriving at Dulles in less than an hour.