Rail To Dulles: No Agreement on Phase II Cost Reduction Yet, Vienna Patch, June 30, 2011

Thirty-day deadline to cut costs looming, but no decision on the horizon.

ByKaren Goff and Dan Telvock|Email the authors|3:00pm

 

Key players in the Rail to Dulles saga are scheduled to meet again Thursday with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in an effort to reduce mounting costs.

Officials from Loudoun and Fairfax counties and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) started meeting in earnest June 1, and LaHood told them they had 30 days to come up with cost-cutting solutions to the estimated $3.5 billion price tag for Phase II.

Last week, business leaders from Loudoun and Fairfax voiced their dissatisfaction with the process in a press conference across the street from Reston's Wiehle Avenue station, which will be the end of the line of Phase 1 when it opens in late 2013.

Loudoun County Chairman Scott York said the 30-day deadline will likely be extended and that no decision was likely to come Thursday.

“I think that window is going to stretch a little bit,” York said about the July 1 deadline.

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