Despite having no secure funding to extend Metrorail out to Dulles International, Metro is planning to purchase more than 100 railcars for the 24-mile extension.
Similar to current lines, Metro is planning to run trains every seven minutes in the peak hours and every 12 minutes during off-peak hours along the planned Silver Line, said Jim Hughes, Metro’s chief of operations.
“That is a lot of miles. An extension like that takes a lot of cars,” said Hughes, who noted the three-mile extension to Largo Town Center took 14 additional cars.
Metro will have to reconstruct the Metro Matters compact that spells out each jurisdiction’s subsidy to the authority in order to pay for the cars, said Chuck Woodruff, Metro’s chief financial officer. The current agreement runs out in 2010 and will be redone to include Loudoun County beginning in 2008, he said.
The 184 new railcars that are currently being delivered to the authority, but are not slated for use with Dulles, are about $2 million each.
“There are major issues relating to the Dulles extension which really need careful review. The initiative here is with the state of Virginia,” said Jim Graham, a District representative on the Metro Board of Directors.
“That is a little bit off. I’m more concerned about having funding for the basic things we do and we still need to work on that dedicated funding source. The Dulles project will or will not get funded. If it does, I think we’ll have the money for railcars, too, but that whole thing hasn’t been worked out yet,” said Chris Zimmerman, a Virginia representative on the Metro Board.
