Operating and maintaining the first phase of the Dulles rail extension will cost the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority $46 million a year, according to staff estimatesthat will be presented Thursday to the system’s board of directors.
The local jurisdictions that support Metro will subsidize $9 million of the annual operations and maintenance expense.
The $46 million for the new service represents about 3 percent of Metro’s operating budget.
The board of directors’ finance committee is scheduled to vote on the proposed financial plan Thursday, and the full board could take action in two weeks.
Without Metro’s agreement to fund the operation and maintenance of the extension, the Federal Transit Administration will not approve $900 million for the project.
The first phase of the Dulles extension, scheduled to open by 2013, will start just after the West Falls Church Metro station, go through Tysons Corner and end with a stop at Wiehle Avenue in Reston.
The second phase of the project will take the extension to Dulles International Airport and deeper into Loudoun County by 2015.
The board also on Thursday will consider a pact between Metro and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority governing construction of the extensions.
The MWAA will oversee building the Dulles line, marking the first time Metro has not supervised the construction of a segment of the transit system.
Board members want assurances that the MWAA will make contractors build the tracks and stations to Metro specifications so the transit system is not saddled with expensive maintenance and replacement costs.
“We are not just going to agree to this blindly,” said D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, who chairs the board’s budget committee.
