Dulles Rail: What We Still Don’t Know, Leesburg Today, March 7, 2012

 by Erika Jacobson Moore

Less that 24 hours after receiving the preliminary engineering numbers from two different studies of Phase 2 of the Metro extension into Loudoun, the Board of Supervisors sat down for their first meeting on the matter. And what came out of it is that the future of rail into the county is still in question as supervisors await the answers to a number of their biggest questions.

With Phase 2 cost estimates set at $2.689 billion—by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s internal analysis—and $2.831 billion—by an independent firm, supervisors said one of the biggest unknown is what it will cost Loudoun to pay for Metro operations. . . .

. . . Also outstanding is a study on the parking garages, which were pulled out of the overall project through a Memorandum of Understanding last November. Loudoun agreed to use its “best efforts” to find private funding for the garages, and discussions on that are continuing, supervisors said. County Chairman Scott K. York (R-At Large), new supervisors and the previous Board of Supervisors all have stated that Loudoun cannot afford to build the three parking garages outright. The project put the cost of those garages at $130 million.

. . . Finally, the county is waiting on a new report on the potential economic impacts of having rail, or for the station ending at Phase 1. The analysis done previously, known as the Lesser report, did not show the new zoning approved by the Board of Supervisors, including the Rt. 28 CPAM, Dulles World and Kincora.

The study will look at the projected growth and then use those numbers to determine the net fiscal impact having rail or not having rail would have on the county. But, staff warned, it is not a short-term vision. . . .

Click here for the rest of this comprehensive article.  

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors appears to be taking a thorough, balanced, and transparent look at the opportunities and costs of Phase 2 and future involvement with WMATA subsidies.  In fact, it may seek a 30-day extension on its 90-day review period to complete and digest the analyses it believes are necessary before making a decision.

The same can not be said for the Fairfax Board whose decision will have a far greater impact on its county's residents and businesses than those Loudoun will experience.  The County has scheduled public meetings to sell the financing proposal--which calls for Dulles Toll Road users to pay three-quarters of the cost of Phase 2 construction ($2.1 billion) through skyrocketing tolls--over the next week and a public hearing next Tuesday.  (Please see the calendar in the right column for specifics of these meetings.) 

We expect the Fairfax Board to rush to judgment--and approval of County participation in Phase 2 of Dulles rail--by mid-April without any evaluation of the impacts on the county.  Most Board members have made up their mind already and the costs of Phase 2 or their inequitable impacts on Dulles Corridor residents and businesses are irrelevant.