LaHood Eyes Plan to Cut Dulles Rail Cost

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is proposing to reduce the cost of the $3.8 billion metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport by having Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Virginia pay for parking garages and a station with federal assistance.

County officials say they are inclined to support the plan, but only on a tentative basis, depending on certain conditions.

As a result, LaHood is not likely to get a final agreement Wednesday afternoon when he meets with stakeholders to discuss his proposal to resolve the long-running dispute between the counties and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority over the cost of financing phase two of the extension.

LaHood’s proposal was presented in a white paper sent to the stakeholders on July 3. He followed that up by sending the stakeholders a memorandum of understanding containing the framework of the proposal on Monday, hoping they would be able to sign it.

Scott York, chairman of Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors, said Tuesday that he will only be able to tentatively agree to LaHood’s proposal based on a resolution passed by the board.

“We are leaning in the direction of support of [LaHood’s] proposal, but we have certain conditions that we need to agree to and see from the other parties before I can sign a memorandum of understanding,” York told board members at the meeting.

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors met on the plan before the MOU came out, leaving chairwoman Sharon Bulova without authority to sign anything.

“I believe the proposal from Secretary LaHood goes a long way toward reaching agreement,” Bulova said Monday. But she also has concerns the county is being asked to do too much and wants further negotiations, sources said.

The MWAA board meets Wednesday morning. Finance committee chairman Robert Brown, who opposes the Department of Transportation  plan, said in an interview Monday that “I don’t want to make any predictions” about its decision.

Overall, LaHood’s proposal would take more than $1 billion out of the $3.8 billion estimated cost of the MWAA’s proposed phase two extension of the metrorail to the Dulles airport. He is proposing to shift the cost of one station and two parking garages to Fairfax County, and three parking garages to Loudoun County.

York told the Loudoun County board Tuesday that the county can’t take on $135 million of additional debt for the garages, and would need public-private partnerships or state aid.

“We do not have the capacity to do this project. Either the private sector takes it or the state guarantees it and all we are is facilitators,” he said.

LaHood’s white paper suggested that Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA, loans would be available to the counties.

Much of the controversy over the project has revolved around whether to build a new underground station at Dulles, which would cost an estimated $562 million, or a lower-costing above-ground station. While the MWAA has pushed for the underground station, the counties have backed the above-ground station.

Loudoun County Supervisor Andrea McGimsey told board members at the meeting that “the underground station is not worth half a billion dollars. It’s not worth it.” She pleaded with the MWAA, “Please, please, change your mind.”

The counties’ main concern about higher costs is that they will require the MWAA to increase tolls on the Dulles Toll Road. “The public does not want to pay these tolls and their elected officials are not happy with them either,” Brown said in the interview. By some estimates, the basic toll could go to around $10 from $1.75.

The MWAA has asked for a $1.73 billion loan from the TIFIA program for the project.

“We have produced pages and pages and reams and reams and reams of financial analysis that show that the way really to address toll increases is with a significant TIFIA loan,” Brown said.

The DOT rejected it as demanding far too much of the available TIFIA aid, according to the white paper.

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