As director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Matthew Tucker plays a major role in shaping the future of mass transit in the commonwealth. While smaller than its sister agency VDOT, Tucker’s department has taken center stage recently for its involvement in planning the 23-mile extension of Metrorail to Dulles Airport. The agency could become increasingly important as Virginia looks for transportation solutions beyond the car.
Does the state provide enough funding for your department?
We’re experiencing record budgets for this agency. … Our programs increased by 45 percent under the transportation bill [approved by the General Assembly this year to fund roads and transit]. The governor has been very emphatic in support of expanding public transportation and rail.
Does that funding need to keep increasing?
As we seek to expand transit where it makes sense, as the population grows, as the miles traveled increases, we’re definitely going to have to look at different funding sources.
Your agency and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority argue the first half of rail to Dulles can be finished in 2012, about a year earlier than what the Federal Transit Administration says is realistic. How can this be done?
Because we have a construction contract. The FTA analysis is based upon a model of analysis that assumes a critical failure occurs in the project, and if you assume that scenario … then it gives you that schedule. We’re sort of a unique creature in the FTA review process because we have a contact.
Are there any new, large-scale transit projects on the horizon?
I’ve heard a lot of discussion about rail projects, and I think a lot of those discussions are in the infancy stage. The significant issue for rail projects is that they are very costly and the federal program that funds them has very limited funds. … Funding is an absolutely major challenge to seeing expanded heavy rail projects implemented.
