With the Dulles Rail project on the edge of ruin, new questions are emerging about the clout and legacy of state and local leaders who had vested themselves in the project’s success.
The Federal Transit Administration on Thursday announced a set of additional problems with building the first half of the Metro extension to Reston that worsened an already dire impasse over its cost and cast grave doubt over whether the FTA would contribute a key $900 million. Without the money, the project has no apparent way of moving forward.
Numerous officials, including Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly, touted their role in advancing Dulles Rail more than their efforts on any other transportation project. They now find themselves fending off blame.
“Neither the Board of Supervisors nor the governor’s office have cloaked themselves in glory on this,” said Leslie Byrne, who represented Virginia’s 11th Congressional District in the 1990s. “They went forward with an idea that wasn’t well accepted, and that’s the price you pay for it.”
Byrne, who will likely face Connolly in a Democratic primary for her old seat, blamed officials for pushing a flawed project that gave the FTA excuses to kill it. She also faulted the Kaine administration for excessive secrecy and failing to adequately bid the project, and the Connolly-led board for reducing Dulles Rail to a means for approving new development.
“When you focus so much on ‘we’re going to expand zoning because we’re going to have a wonderful rail project,’ it became about the expansion of zoning and not really about how to move people most efficiently,” Byrne said.
Connolly rejected Byrne’s assessment as “utter nonsense,” arguing the Bush administration’s Department of Transportation is ideologically opposed to large-scale rail investments.
“There is no way to get a passing grade here because the whole system is skewed toward an F no matter what we do,” he said. “This was a ‘no’ in search of a rationale.”
Dulles Rail’s apparent death surprised many because the area’s congressional delegation, who pushed to save it, are considered some of the nation’s most powerful lawmakers.
“Some of this involves partisanship.The extent to which you have Democrats involved is always something to keep track of, [but] when you have a powerful senior Republican such as Warner, it really is amazing,” said Jim Graham, vice chairman of Metro’s Board of Directors. “Then you also have Congressman [Tom] Davis, who is a very influential Republican member of the House. This is a bread-and-butter, hard-core, essential issue for him.”
Reps. Frank Wolf, Jim Moran and Davis did not respond to requests for comment.
