The state of Virginia and Loudoun and Fairfax counties are pushing for the new Metrorail station at Washington Dulles International Airport to be an aboveground station near a parking garage instead of a much pricier underground station at the main terminal.
Their urgings come as a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board committee is expected to decide on Wednesday where to place the station as part of the 23-mile Dulles Rail project, the largest expansion of the Metro system since its original design. The authority makes the final decision where to put the station, and the full board is expected to vote in April.
The difference hinges on a 600-foot longer walk from the north garage to the main terminal at Dulles or potentially hundreds of millions of dollars more in construction costs to build a closer, underground station.
“In a perfect world, it would be nice to have the rail pull up and then you step off and get on your airplane, but we know it’s not a perfect world,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova said Tuesday.
Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton wrote a letter to the MWAA board chairman on Tuesday, urging the board to “demonstrate cost-sensitive” leadership.
“In this time of continued fiscal restraint it is imperative that the MWAA board show financial responsibility and select the least cost alternative,” he wrote.
However, Metro board members, among others, have pushed for the closer option. They have argued that the station wouldn’t be used as much if it doesn’t connect directly with the airport, and thus would bring in less fare revenue for the transit agency, which will operate the rail line. They pointed to the old, under-used Metro station at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport compared with the current station, which connects directly to the terminal.
The Dulles station location is at issue because the most recent estimates for the second phase of the so-called Silver Line project came in more than $1 billion higher than original estimates, with the project’s total price tag hitting roughly $6.5 billion.
The airports authority has not released exact cost estimates on the station alternatives, said spokeswoman Tara Hamilton. But earlier calculations estimated the aerial option near the garage would shave off about $640 million.
Fairfax County is especially sensitive about the cost of the project. The county is expected to pay 16 percent of the cost to build the project’s second leg, or $510 million to $612 million. But a specially created taxpayer district is limited to contributing $330 million, leaving the county on the hook for as much as $280 million more.
