US Supreme Court Declines To Hear Challenge of Toll Road Fees Backing Metrorail Construction to Dulles Airport, Hunton & Williams, October 12, 2015

Hunton and Williams, the law firm representing MWAA, issued the following press release concerning the decision of the Supreme Court not to hear the case brought by Dulles Toll Road users:

On October 5, the US Supreme Court declined to review a ruling upholding the validity of tolls charged by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to motorists who use the Dulles Toll Road. Toll Road revenues provide a significant portion of the $5.7 billion cost of constructing the Silver Line extension of Metrorail to Washington Dulles International Airport — one of the largest public infrastructure projects in the United States.

By denying certiorari, the Supreme Court left undisturbed a January 2014 decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirming the dismissal of a class action lawsuit brought by Dulles Toll Road users. Rejecting the class plaintiffs’ argument that the tolls amounted to an unconstitutional tax, the Fourth Circuit held that the tolls were valid user fees for passage on the Toll Road. That lawsuit was the last of several actions filed since 2007 attacking the Toll Road user fees.

The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari puts an end to more than eight of years of litigation over the Toll Road fees, leaving a clear path for MWAA to complete the full 23-mile Silver Line Metrorail expansion to Dulles Airport. . . .

Loudoun says it's in the dark on Silver Line despite $300M investment, Washington Business Journal, June 17, 2014

Michael Neibauer writes:

When it comes to the Silver Line project, even a $300 million investment isn’t enough to get answers.

Loudoun County will pay for more than 10 percent of the $2.778 billion extension of the Silver Line from Reston to Ashburn — or 4.8 percent of the $5.7 billion combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 price tag. But the county has very little role in, or even knowledge of, the project itself, according to a staff report. That includes major decisions such as schedule, cost and design changes. . .

The frustration bubbled to the surface in late April, when MWAA publicly announced that stormwater management and technical design changes would delay the opening of the 11.4-mile Silver Line Phase 2 by roughly 13 months.   (Reston 20/20 note:  And we have learned since that the stormwater issue accounts for only one month of the 13-month delay.)

The decisions were all made, Loudoun staff says, by MWAA and contractor Capital Rail Constructors (led by Clark Construction Group LLC and Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.) during a “six-month effort of schedule development and negotiations” in which neither Loudoun nor Fairfax had any role. Loudoun received a revised schedule in mid-May, indicating a late 2019 or early 2020 launch for passenger service, but it still has not been provided a new cost estimate or any word of the increased construction costs resulting from the design changes. . .

Both Loudoun and Fairfax, according to Loudoun staff, “were again excluded from schedule impact discussions” between MWAA and its contractor, the development of a revised schedule, and ongoing discussions regarded additional costs resulting from the massive stormwater management redesign. . . .

Click here for the rest of Mr. Neibauer's article.

MWAA: Silver Line Phase 1 Final Costs Up $76 Million, Phase 2 to Take 13 Months Longer & Add to Costs

April 27, 2015   

Airports Authority Updates Status of Silver Line Metrorail Construction Project 

Design Changes Enhance Safety, Reliability, Environmental Protection

Will Add Time, Cost; Will Not Impact Dulles Toll Road Rates 

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced Monday that design modifications
made to enhance the safety and reliability of the Metrorail Silver Line, along with remaining
work to finalize Phase 1 of the overall project, will add $76 million, or about 2.6 percent, to the
previously announced Phase 1 cost. The new Phase 1 cost remains within the original federally
approved Phase 1 budget.

Toll rates on the Dulles Toll Road will not be affected. Toll rates will remain at current levels
through 2018, and the previously published, decades-long toll rate schedule will remain
unchanged.  Revenue from tolls is one of several sources of funding for the Silver Line project,
which the Airports Authority is constructing for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit
Authority (WMATA).

A recently concluded global settlement with the construction contractor for Phase 1, Dulles
Transit Partners, along with the resolution of other outstanding matters – including the close-out
of Virginia permits which allowed Phase 1 work within Routes 7 and 123 in Tysons Corner, and
the execution of contracts to supplement certain Phase 1 work, as required by WMATA – has
allowed the Airports Authority to project a final Phase 1 close-out cost of $2.982 billion, which
represents an additional cost of about $76 million, and to move to the final close-out of the Phase
1 project.  The majority of the remaining work on Phase 1, which opened for business in July
2014, will be completed by the end of this year, including the delivery of 64 new rail cars at a
cost of $189.4 million to expand the Metrorail fleet.  Final close-out of Phase 1 is expected to
occur in 2016.

“The Phase 1 global settlement is an important milestone in the Silver Line project, following its
successful launch in July 2014,” Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter said.  “It gives us closure
on the most substantial cost component of Phase 1, ensures we will achieve the project’s federal
budget targets and allows us to maintain the existing toll schedule for the Dulles Toll Road.”

The ultimate impact of the Phase 1 additional costs may be reduced or even eliminated if the
contingency budget for Phase 2 of the Silver Line project is not fully used and the total project,
both Phases 1 and 2, comes in at or under the overall project budget.

The Airports Authority also announced an update to the construction schedule for Phase 2 of the
Silver Line project, which will extend service from the terminus of Phase 1 in Reston, Virginia,
through Washington Dulles International Airport and into Loudoun County, Virginia.

More than 150 modifications have been made and integrated into the design for Phase 2. Many
of these modifications parallel design changes made in the latter stages of Phase 1 and will
enhance the safety and reliability of Phase 2.  The modifications, when combined with associated
weather and construction delays, have extended the Phase 2 construction schedule by about 13
months.

“Over 100 design changes were made in Phase 1 – a large number of them ordered in the final
months of the construction process – requiring additional design, engineering, construction,
management and oversight work,” said Charles Stark, the Airports Authority’s executive director
of the Silver Line project. “For consistency, many of these same safety and reliability
modifications needed to be incorporated into Phase 2 of the project, which then impacted the
schedule.”

Potter said, “The added costs arising from Phase 2 design modifications will remain within the
Phase 2 contingency budget of $550 million and will have no effect on the toll rates on the
Dulles Toll Road. With our project partners, we are committed to limiting future design changes.
Phase 1 is already experiencing ridership beyond expectations, and significant construction and
development is underway along its path in the Dulles Corridor. We are confident that Phase 2
will experience similar success.” 

Construction of the Silver Line, one of the largest public transportation construction projects
underway in the country, is managed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and is
being built in partnership with Loudoun and Fairfax counties and the Commonwealth of
Virginia, with financial assistance from the federal government.  It will be transferred to the
WMATA for operation upon completion. 
                                                                         ### 

The Silver Line: The Continuing Saga of the Metrorail Line without Rail Cars

Almost everyone has been pleased with the launching of the Silver Line last June, and Restonians have been quick to embrace it as another vital means of transportation in a congested corridor.  But the Silver Line is running on old, borrowed railway cars that are less reliable and even less safe than their newer counterparts.  

This is not news to WMATA which has a series of contracts and options in place with Kawasaki to address the increasingly antiquated rail cars throughout the Metrorail system the inadequate number of railway cars on the Silver Line.  In fact, the initial contract for the Series 7000 cars was signed four and one-half years (August 2010).  Overall, the contract calls for the construction of up to 748 of a new Series 7000 Kawasaki cars for Metrorail.  Here are the particulars as presented to the WMATA Customer Service and Operations Committee in an October 2013 update:

As this background section indicates, 64 of the cars were intended for Phase I of the Silver Line and another 64 with the completion of Phase II.  The 64 Series 7000 cars for Phase I were due to be delivered last month.  In fact, the following graphic depicts the delivery schedule as of October 2013--and there have been no updates published since to our knowledge:

 

Last week, the Washington Post wrote a rather discouraging article on progress in meeting these delivery deadlines.  It states in part:

After more than a year of running tests and blowing past expected deadlines, Metro promised Thursday that it was only a few weeks away from announcing the launch date for a new series of advanced railcars.

The stainless steel 7000-series subway cars represent a planned $2 billion modernization of Metrorail’s stock. The transit agency hopes to introduce 748 of the cars over the next three years as part of a plan to run all eight-car trains during rush hour, while also replacing the transit agency’s oldest cars, which date to the 1970s.

Eight of the new cars, the first batch acquired by Metro, have been undergoing tests since early 2014. . . .

Metro officials had earlier predicted that the new cars would start carrying passengers by mid-January. But at a meeting of the transit agency’s board of directors on Thursday, officials said that testing was still ongoing, and some board members expressed frustration with the delays.

Tom Downs, a member of the board’s safety and security committee, and a former Amtrak chief executive, said transit authorities had a “responsibility” to tell the public “when they can expect to see the 7000-series cars on the rails.” . . .

Interim General Manager Jack Requa assured the Metro board on Thursday that the transit agency would announce a release date within a few weeks. “We’re all waiting,” Downs said.

According to Metro’s working timetable, 56 of the new cars are expected to be in service by this summer.

But each batch of four cars, arriving from the Kawasaki Rail Car factory in Nebraska, will have to go through testing on local tracks before the cars can take on passengers.

The Tri-State Oversight Committee, which monitors Metro’s safety, said it had finished its own review of the new railcars, but that Metro still needs to complete the cars’ safety certification — a step that Metro officials say has already happened.

“That is in their mind,” said the committee’s chair, Klara Baryshev. “In our minds, it is not.”

 What???

 . . . the next (WMATA) general manager will come under immediate pressure to secure the extra $1.47 billion that Metro needs for 220 of the new cars.

Metro officials expect to resolve the funding issue by the time the D.C. Council and the Maryland and Virginia legislatures finalize their budgets in spring.

The offer price for the remaining cars will expire in June, and transportation experts fear that the price could spike after that. . . .

And there you have it:  Not a single rail car has been put into service, indeed none have apparently been certified for use, only a few have arrived, and WMATA is looking in other peoples' pockets at a late hour to come up with the $1.5 BILLION to finance the the purchase of 220 more of the new cars.   But delivery of few Series 7000 rail cars is expected to begin "soon," according to WMATA officials.

And the WMATA Board just decided to NOT raise fares this year.  Go figure!

This unfinished story nightmare all just leaves our head shaking at the inability of any of the responsible players in this "initiative" to actually complete their various tasks in a timely, rational way.   In fact, it is hard to be constructively critical because it appears no on has done anything they should have when they should have done it--other than commit WMATA to a multi-billion dollar acquisition using other people's money.  The result is an extensive delay in getting the Silver Line the cars it needs and paying tens, if not hundreds, of millions more for cars arriving for the entire system several years late.