The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to more than double the average fare on the Dulles Toll Road by 2016 to raise revenue to extend Metro to Dulles and pay for road improvements.
MWAA, which is expected to take over both the planned Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project and the road, would increase the current average toll of 60 cents to 85 cents in 2010, to $1.10 in 2013 and to $1.35 by 2016, according to information provided through the agency.
By 2035, the average fare would rise to $2.47.
“The revenues will pay for both the rail projects and maintenance and operation and improvement of the toll road,” MWAA spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said.
The toll road, which is now a revenue source for Virginia, will become the largest single source of funds for the first 11.6-mile phase of the expansion of rail to Loudoun County and will likely bear the brunt of the second phase, as well.
Toll road users would shoulder at least $1.29 billion of the estimated $2.64 billion price tag to run the first phase of the rail from west Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue.The financial dependency on the toll road appears to be ever increasing.
In January, the airports authority planned to commit only $1.77 billion to both phases of Dulles rail through the toll road.
But more recent figures show MWAA would depend on the road to raise $2.88 billion, with the total 23-mile project now estimated to cost $5.14 billion.
Chris Walker, who heads the Dulles Corridor Users Group, this week urged MWAA to scrap the toll increases and abandon the rail project, arguing the money is being used “to fund a bankrupt-by-design transit scheme.”
Walker also wants to see the entire rail project put to a referendum.
“This thing ought to go to a ballot measure, which is what happens everywhere else in the country,” he said. “It ought to get approved by the voters.”
