A Debate Over What Revived Dulles Rail

"I don't think they're unreasonable concern s, but I do believe frankly that we have addressed them," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

If anything, Connolly and others said, the enormous political pressure that came down on the Bush administration after the January announcement forced Virginia to more carefully document project details -- and forced the FTA to look more closely.

"I think Mary Peters personally made it her business to look at what we provided," Connolly said. "And she became increasingly impressed that we in fact had met their thresholds. They didn't just look at it and say, 'Okay.' They actually improved the grade in every category in their review."

Certainly the lobbying effort was strong. Landowners in Tysons Corner, many of them federal contractors with relationships in Congress and at the White House, contacted scores of officials to encourage approval of the project. Lecos, head of the Fairfax County chamber, orchestrated 110,000 phone calls into Northern Virginia households, prompting as many as 5,000 phone calls to the White House, he said.

And members of the Greater Washington Board of Trade targeted "anyone who had a White House badge," said the group's president, James C. Dinegar. They took every chance to press their case, from back-fence chats to supermarket run-ins to hand-pressing after Sunday church services.

Such lobbying efforts came on top of the public pronouncements of Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on the importance of rail to Dulles. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) met with Peters twice since January, congressional leaders said.

The biggest push came through intensive behind-the-scenes maneuverings of three elected officials in Virginia: Kaine, Wolf and Sen. John W. Warner (R).

"The governor and the secretary basically on their own initiatives decided to sit down quietly, sometimes without any staff whatsoever, and just talk through this situation," said Warner, who first asked Peters in February to become involved.

Last week's announcement that Dulles rail may proceed to final design has revived speculation that political and ideological considerations, including the Bush administration's preference for privately funded transit projects, were at work when Dulles rail nearly died in January. Some rail boosters even warned administration officials that such motivations could backfire on Republicans.

"It was pointed out to folks," Lecos said, "that failure of a project that has the kind of support that Dulles rail has would have political consequences for any individual or party that was associated with that."

White House officials said they monitored the Dulles Rail negotiations but never got involved and left the decision up to Peters.

Phase I of the Dulles Rail project 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, will extend from Reston to the airport and into Loudoun County.

Money for the project includes an expected federal share of $900 million, funds from two special taxing districts along the proposed rail line and revenue from the Dulles Toll Road.

Staff writers Dan Eggen, Michael Laris and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.