Metro officials have agreed to make changes to the Dulles Rail line designs to reduce the project’s cost by $135 million, the agency said Thursday. The changes would mean canopies that cover just half the platform length at new stations, pedestrian bridges made out of steel instead of concrete, cheaper materials for station roofs and walls, plus a smaller rail yard and shop for trains.
Metro also could be asked to reduce the number of rail cars it orders for the new line from the planned 128 cars to save up to $24 million. However, officials said Thursday they are currently still evaluating the agency’s rail car needs.
The savings are part of a broader effort by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to make peace in the region over the disputed rail line — and bring down the $3.8 billion cost of the second phase of the project. He stepped in when relations soured between the groups funding the new 23-mile rail line and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is building it.
The authority had chosen a more expensive underground design for the station at Washington Dulles International Airport, arguing it was closer and easier for riders to get to the airport.
But Virginia officials on the hook for much of the cost have grumbled because the overall estimate for the project had jumped from initial estimates of $2.5 billion. The higher cost also meant the tolls on the Dulles Toll Road could climb from $2 to as much as $19.25 each way by 2040 to pay off the construction, airports officials have estimated.
LaHood has proposed two levels of possible changes to lower the cost by more than $1 billion, including the changes Metro has agreed to and building an aboveground station near a parking garage, instead of the underground station that the airports authority picked.
The location of the airport station remains unresolved. LaHood has estimated the change would save $562 million but is proposing $10 million extra in windscreens and weatherization to improve the outdoor platform.
Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff acknowledged Thursday that a closer station would be more convenient for airline passengers. But the FTA’s experience nationally has been that airport workers, not airline passengers carting bags, tend to be the primary users of the lines.
Metro’s board has pushed for the underground station, asking for a stop as close to the terminal as possible. And board member Tommy Wells worried Thursday that an aboveground station would be “a second class product.” But board member Mortimer Downey said the airport stop would match others nationwide. “None of them are as convenient as you would like them to be,” he said.
