Fairfax County will look to the Obama administration to fund a shuttle system needed to ferry rail riders to and from four new Tysons Corner Metro stations.
The federal grants, announced this month by the U.S. Department of Transportation, represent one of the best chances for funding a circulator system in the sprawling business hub. The planned network of buses or shuttles is considered critical to hopes of luring commuters away from their cars and unclogging an area that now boasts the region’s worst traffic.
Officials want to have the circulator in place by 2013, when the first leg of the 23-mile Metrorail extension opens. But they have struggled to find funding at a time when transportation revenues are becoming increasingly competitive.
The $280 million in transportation grants for streetcars and urban circulator systems will provide up to $25 million for each project. “It’s critical” that the county seeks the money, said Clark Tyler, chairman of a years-long planning effort for redeveloping Tysons Corner.
“Because $25 million per project, that’s not going to last long,” Tyler said.
The cost of the circulator project will depend on its scope and will hinge especially on whether it incorporates buses or streetcars. A bus system would cost $9 million to create, while a streetcar-based system could cost $500 million to build, according to a report from county staff.
The county plans on applying for the grants for the Tysons circulator and for transportation projects in three other areas, said Kathy Ichter, director of the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. She said the Board of Supervisors will have the final say in which applications are sent out.
The first phase of Dulles Rail, which is now under construction, will split off the Orange Line after the East Falls Church station, cut through Tysons and end in Reston. The final phase will carry the track through Washington Dulles International Airport and into Loudoun County.
Without the circulator, officials worry that the rail stations would be inaccessible or impractical to commuters.
