Vincent Gray, D.C.’s mayor, switched track on Wednesday and endorsed the construction of a less expensive aboveground station at Washington Dulles International Airport in the interest of making sure rail to Dulles gets built at all. By changing his mind, Gray joined a formidable list of Northern Virginia and federal officials pressuring the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to bring down costs of the long-anticipated rail project to Dulles and into Loudoun County. He has urged the District’s three members of the authority’s board to switch their votes and back the aboveground station, as well.
The aboveground station would cost about $330 million less than the underground station favored by the airports authority, but it would be slightly farther from the airport’s terminal. The station’s location has become a key bargaining chip in the overall financing of the multibillion-dollar project.
“We don’t want to wind up with nothing,” Gray said.
The mayor’s change of heart came as Loudoun County and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority held separate meetings to discuss a recent financing proposal put forward by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
LaHood’s proposal reduces the cost of the project by about $1 billion, to about $2.8 billion. Under the current funding formula, costs would be split among Fairfax County, Loudoun County, the airports authority and Dulles Toll Road users.
LaHood’s proposal requires an aboveground station, and also the transfer of some financial responsibility to Fairfax and Loudoun.
Airports authority Chairman Charles Snelling said after a closed session meeting that his board is “strongly considering and strongly receptive to LaHood’s proposals, provided others do their share.”
Specifically, he called for Virginia and the federal government to pitch in more money to the project in order to avoid skyrocketing tolls in coming years.
“The difference in federal financing makes all the difference in the world,” he said.
At a Loudoun Board of Supervisors meeting, Chairman Scott York said that commonwealth transportation officials indicated to him Wednesday morning that they’d put $150 million more toward the project’s costs, in order to offset increasing tolls.
Even with state help, however, York and his board continued to insist that the airports authority back the aboveground station as a way to bring down costs to Northern Virginia taxpayers and toll road users.
“Loudoun and Fairfax are not cash cows for [the airports authority],” he said. “I’m surprised that they just don’t get that.”
Representatives from Loudoun, Fairfax and the airports authority will reconvene with LaHood on July 20 to determine final financing plans for the project.
