Transportation secretary: Cut costs of Metro station, Loudoun Times, March 15, 2011

". . . Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton wrote a letter March 15 addressed to Charles Snelling, chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, imploring the chairman to change Dulles airport’s proposed underground Metrorail station to an aerial station.

Connaughton’s main reason behind beseeching the change is that it will save $640 million in taxpayer money. . . ."

 And our own Board Chairman, Sharon Bulava, has also made it clear that Fairfax County doesn't want to see Metrorail costs continue to rise:

Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova scribed a letter to Snelling last month. In it, she states that Phase two cost estimates do not sit well with the Fairfax board.

“When coupled with the recent information about actual costs exceeding budget for station finishes on [phase one], the county is further concerned about the accuracy of the cost estimate for [phase two],” she writes.

“If the Airports Authority Board favors an alignment that is more costly than the aerial alignment, then the Airports Authority should fund the differential without impacting Fairfax County or tolls on the Dulles Toll Road,” she said.

For the rest of this article on the burgeoning costs of the Silver Line, click here.