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Bus system proposed as alternative to Dulles rail
RICHMOND – In light of the uncertain future of the proposed Metrorail line to Washington Dulles International Airport, several Virginia legislators are looking at other options to help ease the traffic problems in Northern Virginia.
The Dulles Metrorail project would bring service from the Orange line at the East Falls Church station through Tysons Corner and Reston, to the airport and into Loudoun County.
However, the project hit a major snag last week when it was declared unfit for federal funding without changes in cost and management. The Federal Transit Administration had been expected to fund $900 million of the estimated $5 billion cost of the project.
Del. Bob Marshall (R-Leesburg) and Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Centreville) held a press conference Feb. 3 to discuss the possibility of using a bus rapid transit system to supplement or replace the proposed rail project.
“I believe now that the governor should stop pushing this project – I think it’s like pushing air through a corpse – and get serious about bus rapid transit,” Marshall said.
Marshall initially supported the rail project, but both he and Cuccinelli expressed concerns over the cost. They said the project already has encountered cost overruns even though it is essentially still in the planning stages.
“Given the continued cost escalations and the uncertainty of possible future cost escalations associated with this project, we must abandon the Metro to Dulles project and come up with an alternate plan,” Marshall said in a statement released at the press conference.
He believes that bus rapid transit will be more cost-effective, especially if it is funded by public-private partnerships. The bus system can be put in place in less time than the rail project, Marshall said.
Marshall later said he would like to see rail to Dulles at some point. But with the cost issues and uncertain federal funding, he said, now it is not the right time to do it. He also expressed concern over the selection of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to oversee the project. He mentioned a report released by the Government Accountability Office that criticized the airports authority’s contracting practices.
Cuccinelli also expressed concerns over the efficiency of the rail system. He said he opposed the “Dulles rail boondoggle” since 2002. He believes the bus system would benefit more of the region, instead of just having the one rail line.
“The Metro system is crumbling,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to add to it when we need congestion relief, and all we get from Metro is essentially broken down trains … and we do not need the additional taxes.”
Del. Vivian Watts (D-Annandale) also expressed support for bus rapid transit. She was Virginia’s secretary of transportation and public safety in 1986-1990 under then-Gov. Gerald Baliles.
Watts backed away from the other legislators’ criticism of the rail system, saying bus rapid transit is an option that should be considered as part of a total transit network.
“I was only participating in my advocacy as we look at all alternatives,” she said.
The current governor, Timothy Kaine (D), still supports the rail system.
“The goal is, make it happen,” he said. “We’re willing to entertain adjustments or proposals that the FTA and (U.S. transportation) secretary would suggest, just as we have in the past.”
Kaine acknowledged that it would be difficult to complete the project without FTA funding, but he said it would not be impossible.
“The option of doing this without a federal partner is not one that any of us want to contemplate,” he said. “If you take out the federal share, it doesn’t make the cost of the project go down; it just means you have to find that cost from someone else.”
CNS reporter Sheena Jeffers contributed to this report.
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