One of the main reasons the Federal Transit Administration wisely considers the Dulles Rail project a bad risk for federal funding is the shaky financial condition of the Metropolitan Washington Area Transit Authority, including $7 billion in unfunded maintenance needs that threaten the safety of Metro’s current passengers. Before any money is spent on expansion, Metro must fix the existing Metro system.
Metro’s situation has deteriorated so dramatically over the last year that it has significantly added to the already substantial technical, financial and institutional risks that the FTA was required to weigh while evaluating the Dulles Rail project, FTA Administrator James Simpson told The Examiner. Metro officials have been using jacks and plywood to prop up sagging station platforms, even while spending scarce resources trying to extend their reach farther into the Virginia suburbs — a troubling example of poor judgment and misplaced priorities.
Simpson also says FTA — an agency that has approved more than $80 billion in transit projects all over the country — never received specific change orders showing that $300 million in cuts were made to the Dulles Rail contract as promised. “They never proved the cuts were real instead of just pie-in-the-sky,” he said, adding that Gov. Tim Kaine and most of the congressional delegation were made aware of FTA’s concerns as far back as last August. Federal bureaucrats make an easy target and seldom get sufficient credit when credit is due. This is one of those times. FTA officials did exactly what they’re supposed to do as responsible guardians of federal funds, exercising extraordinary due diligence in assessing a project with unprecedented risks and no contractual or managerial incentives to hold down costs.
Stunned proponents of Dulles Rail have already begun blaming Simpson, other FTA officials and the few courageous souls at the state and local level who refused to buckle under the relentless PR spin from project advocates and their enablers in the news media. But the people who bucked the tide are the heroes in this story. After a decade of planning, state and local officials still couldn’t get it right. With the current no-bid contract now in jeopardy, FTA may well prove to be the last fire wall between Fairfax County taxpayers and the biggest political con job in Virginia history. Meanwhile, the public’s significant investment in the existing Metro system cannot be abandoned. The huge maintenance backlog in the subway system serving the nation’s capital must be addressed by Congress. But the Metro board should be forced to allow FTA officials to oversee the restoration. They’ve more than earned the public’s trust.
