A flurry of praise and attacks followed Monday’s decision by Fairfax County supervisors to approve $400 million in funding for Dulles rail.
The near-instantaneous reactions ran the spectrum from enthusiastic applause to charges of short-sightedness, much of it centered around the board’s refusal to withhold the funds to demand the state reconsider a popular tunnel concept under Tysons Corner.
The 8-2 vote ensures the board’s commitment to the initial phase of the 23-mile extension of Metrorail to Loudoun County, with an above ground track through the Tysons commercial center.
West*Group, the largest landowner in Tysons Corner, which had helped fund a recent push to bring back the tunnel, said in a statement Monday that the “contract served up by the state gave the Board of Supervisors very little choice but to approve what was put in front of them.” West*Group would have stood to gain substantially in increased land values associated with an underground route.
Marie Huhtala, who is challenging Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins in the general election, blasted the board for not having a clear picture on long-term financing that could leave the county picking up shortfalls. The project’s first phase is slated to cost $2.6 billion; the entire rail line is expected to cost $5.1 billion. Supervisors should have waited, she said, until the Federal Transit Administration completed its assessments of cost and schedule.
“I think they should have held out for more clarity about the actual financial exposure that we’re going to have here,” she said.
Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer, who last week warned that a “no” vote by the board would sink the entire transit project, on Tuesday praise the board for moving forward. “You cannot find a place in the metropolitan area that regrets having extended Metrorail to it…this is an enormous plus to the region and to the corridor, ” he said.
