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$300 Million Cut in Dulles Rail Project Is Proposed
On Capitol Hill, tunnel advocate Joe Nocerino of Vienna criticizes the planned aboveground Metro route. "It's really going to be a blight," he says.
(By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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"Absolutely," shouted another man.
Kaine became angry at one point, telling a tunnel speaker: "Do not interrupt me." But he took a more conciliatory tone later, saying: "We have to make a call, and the call has to be made with a goal in mind. And the goal is this: This is an airport that should have been served by rail when it was built. To come back later now to do it -- I wish we didn't have to. But by gosh, we need to if we're going to have a quality of life that is worthwhile in this region."
Kaine outlined proposed cuts that would reduce the $2.8 billion cost of the first phase to $2.5 billion -- well within the transportation agency's cost-efficiency requirements, which the project must meet to qualify for the federal funding. Without the federal money, the project will not go forward.
Few of the cuts would have a direct impact on service for riders. They include eliminating $77 million in road improvements to Route 7 in Tysons Corner that can be paid for with separate state money; cutting a parking garage in Reston and building it through a public-private partnership instead; building smaller canopies at stations; and laying concrete platforms instead of expensive tile pavers.
Transit agency spokesman Wes Irvin said that officials can't comment on a proposal that they won't see until today but that "we look forward to reviewing their proposal."
But another prominent official, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors member T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee), who sits on the Metro board, questioned the accuracy of the savings that Kaine presented, particularly the Route 7 improvements.
"It's a zero-sum game," he said. "The only way Route 7 gets done is if some other project doesn't."
Rail to Dulles has been planned since the early 1960s, when the airport opened. More recently, the project has faced cost overruns and controversy over the tunnel.
"It is the single most important transportation investment that the entire metropolitan region can make," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax board. "The Dulles corridor is the single most important economic and employment corridor in the region except for the core itself. And it's getting more so every day."
