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Politics & Government

Balancing Cost and Convenience for Dulles Metrorail

Officials hope to avoid a "nightmare scenario" as they press for reduced costs for the Dulles Metrorail project.

I have to admit, at first I was among a seemingly tiny minority of people who liked the plan of the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) to locate the Dulles Airport Metrorail station underground and relatively close to the terminal.

I vividly remember trudging through miles of corridors with my wife at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as we toted three young children and a ton of luggage.  That experience, coupled with the other challenges of flying with young children, was so miserable that we eventually gave up flying the unfriendly skies and made our annual trek to visit family in Chicago by car.

Yes, the 1,500-mile round trip via the Pennsylvania Turnpike was much more enjoyable.

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Those memories came back to me when I envisioned families arriving at the alternative, above-ground Dulles Metro station and shepherding their children and luggage the length of two football fields just to get to the point where the proposed underground station might have been built.

Granted, it may be a small percentage of people who would arrive at Dulles Airport by Metro with families in tow.  But there will also be elderly people, people with disabilities, and others who find it daunting to add 600 feet to their trek.

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I am also concerned about the perception of the flying public.  If it seems too onerous to use the Metro to reach the airport, people will simply drive.  This will defeat one of the main purposes of extending Metro to the airport and beyond, into Loudoun County.

Consider the highly unpopular “mobile lounges” that shuttled passengers between the terminals.  Were they really that bad, or was it mostly the added hassle of being forced to make (and wait for) one more connection at the beginning or end of a trip that made them so unpopular?

“Build it right the first time,” I thought when I first learned of the controversy.  Cutting corners on convenience might be penny-wise but pound-foolish.

This leads to the big question: whether we can afford the closer, more convenient underground station favored by MWAA.

Elected officials – including Congressman Frank Wolf, Governor Robert McDonnell, and members of the Loudoun and Fairfax boards of supervisors – are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the underground station, citing the added $300 million in the cost of constructing the underground station.

This is a lot of money, and the costs would be borne, in part, by Loudoun County taxpayers and drivers who use the Dulles Toll Road, many of whom live in Loudoun County.

As stewards of taxpayer dollars, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is right to oppose this added cost, which is significant.  The Board has written a letter to MWAA that raises the possibility that Loudoun would opt out as a partner in the Metrorail extension.  This would certainly kill the extension of the Metrorail line beyond the airport, into Loudoun County, and it isn’t a certainty that the Metro line could even be extended to the airport without Loudoun’s participation.

I don’t think there are many people in Loudoun who want to see the project die altogether.  In addition to providing a badly needed mass transit option for commuters and air travelers, the Metrorail project will also be an economic development boon for Loudoun County. 

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Potomac District Supervisor Andrea McGimsey raised some pertinent questions regarding the costs of not extending the Metro into Loudoun, including negative impacts on road congestion and economic development.  She raised what she termed “the nightmare scenario,” in which Loudoun chooses to opt out of the project, thereby failing to receive the benefits of Metrorail service in the county, while Loudoun commuters who use the toll road could still get saddled with much higher tolls.

I doubt that it will get to that point.  Opposition to MWAA’s plan is so strong and widespread among top public officials that I suspect that all sides will come to the table to try to find an acceptable compromise.

The outcome might be bad news for families flying with young children, and for people with mobility problems, but it may also be the only way the project will become a reality.

As for me, I’m still hoping for a compromise that brings down the costs to an acceptable level while still making Metrorail service for air travelers as convenient as possible.

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