A Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority committee voted in favor of an underground station at Dulles International Airport, ignoring pleas from Virginia counties that will shoulder the additional $330 million in construction costs.
The authority’s Board of Directors must still approve the design, which committee Chairwoman Mame Reiley said is a more pedestrian-friendly station. With the underground station, the Metro trains would drop passengers off about 500 feet closer to the airport than an above-ground, elevated station next to a Dulles parking garage, an option Reiley said would provide “inferior” service.
“Basically we would be settling for a second-class station at a first-class airport,” she said.
However, it’s also the more expensive choice, as Fairfax and Loudoun county officials have noted. And while MWAA staff assured the committee they could handle the cost difference, director Frank Connor said the project’s financing was far from certain.
MWAA estimates that financing the airport’s portion of the cost could mean raising tolls again on the Dulles Toll Road. Tolls could cost drivers $10 each way by 2030.
“Is this the straw that breaks the camel’s back? No one knows,” Connor said.
