With regard to the Metro to Dulles project, my view has always been, "do it right or don't do it at all." It almost seems to go without saying that "doing it right" should involve ensuring that the new "Silver Line" meshes with the existing Metro system. The fact is, Metro is a great system, but it's experiencing crowding, breakdowns, shortages of equipment, and other strains. In large part, those strains stem from the lack of dedicated funding for Metro. As the Washington Times writes this morning:
Those who suspected that Virginia might risk a smaller replay of the cost overruns associated with Boston's "Big Dig" without aggressive cost-management standards are also vindicated. But so are proponents of dedicated Metro funding. Mr. Simpson's doubts that Metro would be able to maintain the line trace directly to the insecurity of Metro's finances via a hat-in-hand approach to capital investment. Spending billions now on the premise that the District, Virginia, Maryland and federal authorities will somehow cease their Metro funding gamesmanship is a poor bet.
"Hat-in-hand" is no way to run the public transportation system for the nation's capital. We need to do better as we consider whether there's a way to move forward from the FTA decision to deny federal funding for extending Metro to Dulles. A letter to the editor by Nick Manetto of Reston sums it up very well:
... I especially agree with fears that simply packing tens of thousands more riders into an overtaxed system will result in nothing but more breakdowns, offloaded trains and service delays.If our region is serious about extending rail to Dulles, we must first take action to shore up Metro -- perhaps through a dedicated funding stream -- and make needed infrastructure improvements, including perhaps another tunnel or bridge across the Potomac River.
Exactly right. Fixing the existing Metro system should be the first step in any future consideration of a possible Dulles extension.
The Metro system is now over 30 years old in some places and will have some major capital requirements coming online. Many parts of the system are overwhelmed with ridership and some people talk about the EXISTING system needing expansion to be able to handle the ridership that's being created by all the boosted density being build around stations.
It's also interesting because when the Republicans passed their "vaunted" transportation plan last year, HB 3202, that you repeatedly criticized, Tom Davis and others repeatedly pointed out that it was necessary because it was giving Metro its desperately needed dedicated funding source. Apparently, this Republican salve was hardly sufficient. Shocker.
When you think about it, the bridge in Minnesota falling down, and all of Virginia's other neglected capital needs, the letter from the FTA is just one more canary in the coal mine which highlights the reality that the Republican policy of starving government may have short-term benefits (winning elections), but the long-term consequence is disasterous. I think many voters are just starting to figure that out as people continue to point this out.
The drumbeat will continue getting louder. Hopefully, no one else will get killed by falling bridges or crumbling assets in the meantime.
Here's a thought, a 0.5% tax on Congressional campaign contributions, dedicated to Metro and DC area transportation improvements. And the deal could even be that the tax goes down to 0.25% when DC gets voting rights in Congress. Why campaign contributions? Because the REASON for the growth and traffic in our area is the Federal government, and it is elected officials who ultimately drive the growth of the government, and the resulting traffic and sprawl in the area.
Of course, it will never work, but hey, it's an idea.
1) Figure out a way to get the funding to build a tunnel through Tysons.
2) Begin seeking alternate sources of funding.
3) Get a contractor who will will build the tunnel.
This project can't die and somehow someone is going to have to show leadership here. I don't care who it is, but it needs to be done.
Yes, the Feds killed this one but VA being a Dillon Rule state has prevented NOVA from taking the lead in better planning NOVA's growth all these years. That's my point.
1) Metro is broken: even Lowell agrees that it must be fixed first. This is fine, but this has been expressed for years and nothing has been done. It is easy to blame Frank Wolf or the Republican General Assembly, but difficult to actually do something about the problems. Lowell's ideas are fine, but what does that do to the Dulles Rail timeframe?
2) Inadequate project management (P.M.): the planning (one of the prime functions of P.M. )is obviously poor, given the continually changing and upward-trending cost estimate. If the planning is poor then project control (another prime function of P.M.) is impossible. Why would a tunnel project have better P.M.?
3) Ridership: one reason the FTA gives is that there is insufficient projected ridership. Why will a tunnel "magically" create higher ridership?
4) Traffic congestion: has it been conclusively demonstrated that traffic congestion will significantly decrease in the Tysons area with Dulles Rail? That should be the major rationale for Dulles Rail, but the rationale now seems to be "We must have Dulles Rail".
5) Benefits: can anyone deny that the Real Estate interests who own and intend to develop their properties around the proposed Metro stations will be major beneficiaries of Dulles Rail? If a new tunnel design showed entirely different station locations, would we see the same enthusiasm for the project? The public should demand a solution that first-and-foremost benefits the public.
6) Operational Expenses: Even if we ignore the huge construction and start-up costs there will be huge on-going operational expenses that ultimately the taxpayers will have to fund. Hasn't this been forgotten is all of the discussions?
R.I.P. is my conclusion to this controversy. Instead of prolonging the death watch, the sensible solution is to scrap Dulles Rail and begin to really solve the congestion problem at Tysons with real solutions such as Bus Rapid Transit or other creative ideas. With this approach we will accomplish something.
The tunnel issue is an extra boondoggle expense issue because some wealthy Republican business land owners don't want to have to look at a rail system in "their back yard". That goes for McLean property owners as well.
With the growth and expansion of Loudon County the ridership is there. Fees for Dulles Airport travelors (small fees is all ) would help suppliment maintainance costs......think about it a $5.00 Airport fee instead of a $50.00 parking or cab fee.
Roads and more roads are not the answer. Want to make it more efficant? after expanding the spokes from DC outward construct a European model and build a surrounding rail system that connects the spokes. Trust me traffic will be halved then.