A handful of business and transportation groups are urging Virginia’s governor to move the Dulles Corridor Metrorail project forward with an aerial rail through Tysons Corner.
The resolutions serve to buoy Gov. Tim Kaine, who has faced strong opposition to his announcement in September that the 23-mile rail extension would run as an aerial rail, not a tunnel, through Tysons Corner. The governor and local congressmen cited warnings from the Federal Transit Administration that a more expensive, delayed tunnel would tip the scales of cost-effectiveness and make the project ineligible for $900 million in federal funds.
Tysons business groups have allied under the banner of Tysonstunnel.org to revive the tunnel idea, commissioning a multimillion-dollar study and enlisting engineers to prove the underground track is feasible. Kaine has refused to reverse his decision, arguing that a major change this late in the planning could sink the entire rail project. Proponents of the tunnel tout it as a way to convert Tysons into a pedestrian, urban community instead of a traffic-choked commercial center.
But groups also have stacked up in opposition to the tunnel proposal, including the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, the Dulles Corridor Rail Association and, most recently, the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, which sent a letter to Kaine this month supporting his decision.
“Federal officials have made it perfectly clear that pursuing a tunnel alignment would risk federal funding for the project,” wrote Loudoun chamber Chairman Brian Chavis. “The federal budget climate makes future funding for transit projects uncertain at best. Delay puts the entire project at risk.”
