Metro to Dulles in doubt
 

Ugh.

Mary Peters is an absolute buffoon. This project is "risky" but the FAA is allowed to piss away billions on a next-gen ATC system that still hasn't gotten off the ground?

The project is risky. There are better solutions than the current plan.

The federal government has a major problem with any large complex computer sytem. the contract is sold to to the highest bidder(campaign donations), and not well supervised from there.

what comes to mind is the FBI super computer, which i do not think still works.

i think that the dullus extension has a big cost/benefit problem.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Sounds like typical goofy SNAFU. Political support from Warner and Kaine, inter alia, didn't stay in touch closely enough on an ongoing basis to know that FTA was having large objections.

FTA should have been raising its red flags sooner.

Too bad Tyson's sticks up right in the middle. Both ends of the new line could be built above ground pretty quickly along the median of the toll road from EFC/WFC line and from the airport back to Tyson's. Figuring out real costs (with politics on both sides) of tunneling versus elevated through Tyson's is short term dispute. Longer term dispute is the real objections FTA has raised, management structure, whether airports authority could actually run the rail service, and the cost and revenue projections, given inevitable cost overruns and delays.

I think it's an idea whose time has passed.

why you say that? i sort of think the 395/95 "mixing bowl" ran close to schedule and price.

the Wilson Bridge project is on time/budget schedule.(3 jurisductions involved!!)

the south capitol street bridge and that stupid stadium are on time/budget schedule, and that is DC.

Can't expect much from any government run project. Want another example? tTke the Bay Bridge in San Francisco/Oakland. Sad stories, but they keep on repeating!

It wasn't going to be done until 2016 (which probably meant 2020) anyway.

The more serious systemic/management problems are being exposed now. The idea is still viable (my "has passed" was not the right choice of phrase), but it looks like the entire project will be enroute back to the drawing boards with significant changes in management and fiscal responsibility. With Metro also in trouble with existing infrastructure needs/repairs, looks like lots of headaches to go around.

January 26, 2008


THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL - The future of the Dulles Metro extension is in serious doubt. This week, Federal Transit Administrator James Simpson informed Virginian officials that his agency will not turn over the project's $900 million in needed federal funding because of doubts that the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority can build the line, questions as to whether Metro will be able to operate it and certainty that the project has failed cost-effectiveness standards. In so doing, Mr. Simpson has scored a win for accountability and oversight. Of course, he also delays a transit solution for Tysons Corner and quite possibly torpedoes it.

In the wake of this news, the rationale of the airports authority as lead agency warrants examination. This agency's areas of expertise are runways and airport infrastructure. There were rightful doubts that the success of the 1977 Metro extension to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport or that of other more recent projects could be replicated here. Those who questioned the lead of an airport authority on a rail project, now vindicated, should consider calling for a new lead. For all of Metro's management deficiencies, it would seem to have more expertise.

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.

Recall that nearly one year ago, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine jettisoned a tunnel on the grounds that cost overruns would jeopardize the $900 million in federal funding. Here we are, jeopardized, even amid the more modest project.

A solution for Tysons' congestion is a necessity — it may turn out that a better-managed public transit project plus old-fashioned road and highway expansion is the solution. The Washington region suffers the nation's second-worst traffic congestion by hours wasted. The Dulles corridor is perhaps our region's worst. Only about one-eighth of Washington commuters use public transportation. Rail is but one component, and it is no panacea.

I still vote for a tiltrotor aircraft service!
Cheers!
Howie

Or a battery-powered (huge batteries) hovercraft running down the grass median from EFC or WFC up 267 and out to Dulles!