Bristling at hecklers and weathering a generally cold audience, U.S. Rep. Jim Moran on Saturday told hundreds of Tysons tunnel supporters he won’t “be a cheerleader” for the underground track.
Moran, D-District 8, delivered a downbeat assessment for the tunnel concept, which supporters hope to revive as part of the 23-mile Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. Gov. Tim Kaine abandoned the popular idea in September after the Federal Transit Administration warned it would put $900 million in federal funds in jeopardy. Supporters, however, have since massed a groundswell of local pressure to bring the tunnel back.
Moran repeated the same concerns that Northern Virginia’s congressional delegation and state officials have asserted for months: The tunnel, this late in the game, will imperil the entire project.
“I’m not here to be a cheerleader, not to tell you what you want to hear,” Moran told the crowd. “I’m going to tell you what I think you need to know.”
Tysonstunnel.org, an alliance of local business groups pushing hard for the state to reconsider the project, organized the rally in Vienna. A tunnel, they argue, will last longer than the planned aerial rail, disrupt traffic less and create a new pedestrian-oriented Tysons.
By contrast to his colleague, Rep. Tom Davis, R-District 11, was uncharacteristically upbeat on the tunnel, telling the crowd “we want to do this right.” Before the tunnel’s official rejection in September, Davis and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-District 10, sent a letter to Kaine warning it could imperil federal funding.
“Can you imagine what the construction is going to be like, when they’re constructing this thing above ground in Tysons?” he said. “It takes forever to get there now.”
Tysonstunnel.org president Scott Monett would not comment on Moran’s statements. The group spent millions preparing their own tunnel engineering plans to prove the concept is still feasible. Kaine has shown no sign, however, of reversing course.
“Our supporters have made it very clear to me and I think everyone else, that we’re interested in how the tunnel can be done, not how it can’t,” Monett said.
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