Dulles Rail Still Has Miles to Go, Hurdles to Clear

Metro is the nation's only major transit system that does not have a significant source of dedicated funding, such as a portion of a sales tax. The agency's operating costs are paid by farebox receipts, advertising and parking revenue, and subsidies from the jurisdictions that Metro serves.

As Metro searches for funding, Virginia and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority must work to keep the project on budget and on time. The authority operates the region's two airports and the Dulles Toll Road and also will manage the rail line's construction. Already, the agency faces a three-month delay that saw the extension of contract deadlines to accommodate deliberations with the FTA. Those extensions have increased the project's cost and will probably push back completion of Phase I from 2012 to at least 2013.

Phase I calls for the construction of a "Silver Line" from the East Falls Church station in Arlington County to Wiehle Avenue in Reston. Phase II, with a scheduled completion date of 2015 -- that is also likely to be delayed -- will extend from Reston to the airport and into Loudoun County.

The total project cost is about $5 billion, with the money coming from the expected federal share, two special taxing districts along the proposed rail line and revenue from the Dulles Toll Road.

One additional hurdle facing the rail project is a lawsuit pending before the state Supreme Court that challenges Virginia's transfer of the Dulles Toll Road to the airports authority. Opponents have other lawsuits planned as well, including one challenging the taxing district established in Tysons Corner and another challenging the airports authority's right to build the rail line. A possible fourth lawsuit would challenge the findings of the project's environmental impact statement, opponents said.

"This is $900 million of federal money that will provide essentially no congestion relief by their own admission," said Patrick McSweeney, a lawyer and former chairman of the state Republican Party who argued the toll road suit before the state Supreme Court last month.

"It's a development road," McSweeney said, "and its purpose is to encourage development and nothing else."