We’ve been saying for some time now that rail to Dulles is a boondoggle and the project should be killed. Now we learn that Sen. Ken Cuccinelli has come out in opposition to this multi-billion dollar bad idea as well.
CUCCINELLI OPPOSES RAIL TO DULLES
Releases Letter to Federal Transit Administration
Centreville, Virginia, January 18, 2008 – Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37th) today released correspondence to The Honorable James Simpson of the Federal Transit Administration. Cuccinelli asked Simpson to re-allocate the $900 Million dollars of federal monies currently proposed to bring the Metro Rail Dulles.
Cuccinelli cited studies showing that the project will not relieve congestion in the Dulles corridor and may actually precipitate worsening traffic conditions. The Western Fairfax Senator argued that these funds will be better spent on projects that actually benefit Northern Virginia commuters.The full text of Senator Cuccinelli’s letter to James Simpson follows:
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BY FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION
The Honorable James Simpson
Federal Transit Administration
400 Seventh Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590RE: Opposition to Dulles Rail Project
Dear Mr. Simpson:
As the State Senator representing the Fairfax County district immediately south of the path of Dulles Rail’s proposed alignment, I write to you asking you to refuse to provide the proposed $900,000,000 Full Funding Grant Agreement to the project sponsors.
Rather than waste more federal, state and local resources trying to make this dreadful project work, we should kill the project forthwith, and use the designated resources in a manner designed to actually reduce congestion in the region – something the proposed project does not achieve, despite the monumental price tag.
According to Dulles Rail’s Environmental Impact Statement, drafted by the very entities and agencies leading the push for the Dulles Rail project, even if Phase I of Dulles Rail were completed from West Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue by 2011 (the FTA now says 2014 is the earliest completion date), the Service Level for Dulles Toll Road traffic would be designated “F”, which the FTA terms “severely congested, gridlock”.
The Phase I cost rose from approximately $1,200,000,000 to $1,800,000,000 in 2004, and now the FTA has determined the cost to be $2,830,000,000 and that is before we have turned one shovel of dirt on the project. Everyone associated with this project further recognizes that additional cost overruns are going to occur if the project goes forward. It is absurd to spend such massive amounts of money when congestion is not reduced to any degree by the project.
Dulles Rail proponents also ignore how the building of the Tyson’s Central Station in the Leesburg Pike median will create an unparalleled choke point of congestion.
Lanes will be blocked on Route 7/Leesburg Pike and intersecting roads, heavy equipment will clog access, construction will rut roads, and Tyson’s commuters will suffer, all for virtually no reduction of congestion. The construction noise, lighting and digging will blight the Tyson’s area that the Dulles Rail supporters allegedly seek to improve. Inter-modal bus and taxi service has been shortchanged to make the project meet FTA budget requirements, and we know any Metro station needs to have such service in quantity.
Reviewing the project from a purely fiscal standpoint further undermines the rail proponents’ special pleading. A private entity offered $5.7 billion for the Dulles Toll Road two years ago, yet Governor Kaine gave it to the Airports Authority gratis.
Governor Kaine’s questionable transfer of the Toll Road without a legislative vote is now before the Virginia Supreme Court, and the current briefs before that court indicate the minimum 25% Commonwealth share of the project is endangered. Also, I understand tolls on the highway will rise precipitously to fund the Commonwealth’s share, which could climb to an eventual total of $2-3 billion. I don’t want my constituents to have to pay $5-6 to pay for a ten mile ride on the Toll Road in a few years.
House Speaker William Howell has brought the Toll Road giveaway up repeatedly to the Virginia General Assembly, because the money the Commonwealth could obtain for the Toll Road could be spent on more deserving highway projects in our area.
The waste of federal money on a rail project which will not improve traffic, makes this project an even worse risk for FTA than the dreadful “Big Dig” tunnel debacle in Boston.
Because the federal appropriation for Dulles rail is capped, Northern Virginia taxpayers are in tremendous danger of a wholly separate tax increase to pay for Dulles Rail cost overruns, now well over $1 billion and counting. My constituents are already suffering from years of tax increases, and I ask you on their behalf to not issue the Full Funding Grant Agreement, and thus spare them the inevitable tax increase, which will be on top of the toll increase.
Fairfax County Executive Anthony Griffin has already promised VDOT Secretary Pierce Homer in a November 1, 2005 letter that the County will use general revenue funds to pay Dulles rail “cost increases”. Our county general fund is overwhelmingly funded by real estate taxes.
Why should Fairfax County taxpayers have to pay $1 billion in cost overruns for Dulles rail, in the form of increased real estate taxes, when their home values are plummeting, and the County is facing $200 million in annual deficits caused by property tax revenue decreases?
Loudoun County taxpayers, who are my neighbors less than five miles away, are in danger of a huge tax increase as indicated by Griffin’s letter to Pierce Homer being copied to Loudoun County Executive Kirby Bowers, where they will help pay for Phase II “cost increases” if the rail line is continued from Wiehle Avenue to Route 772 in Loudoun County. Unlike Fairfax, Loudoun does not have as many businesses to tax to pay for Dulles rail.
The only people who benefit from the Dulles Rail project are a small and select group of construction and consulting companies and lobbyists, as well as large companies who own real estate along the path of the rail line in Tyson’s, because their properties will appreciate significantly. Note of course, that while the increase in the values of the Tysons properties will be quite large, those owners’ tax contribution to the Dulles Rail project is capped. This situation is truly odd, as the main beneficiaries are protected from additional tax-increases to pay for cost overruns, but everyone else in Fairfax County will see real estate tax increases because of Dulles Rail (including the never-discussed subsidies for the operation of the rail line extension that will be paid out of county real estate taxes if the rail line ever becomes operational).
The notion that rail will add jobs at Tyson’s is also refuted by the Dulles Rail Environmental Impact Statement, which is based on the Metropolitan Council of Governments jobs survey. That survey admits three times as many jobs will be created in the Dulles/Herndon area as in Tyson’s prior to 2025, whether or not the rail line is built.
Rail proponents have to do wasteful things such as purchase Washington Post advertisements, because their own documents privately submitted to the FTA belie their public assertions of creating jobs in Tyson’s and reducing highway congestion.
We in Northern Virginia could surely use your financial help to reduce our traffic congestion, but when we can get federal monies, it should be used to get the greatest reduction of congestion per dollar possible. This project fails that simple cost/benefit test in spectacular fashion. Therefore, I would respectfully request that the proposed $900,000,000 be directed to projects in Northern Virginia that will actually reduce traffic congestion.
Please deny federal funding for this most wasteful project, and note the opposition of my neighbor State Senator Chapman Petersen (to the current proposal), the opposition of House Speaker William Howell, and the powerful summer 2007 report from your Inspector General noting the huge weaknesses of the Dulles rail project proposal.
Please feel free to contact me about this matter.
Sincerely,
Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II
Virginia State Senator——————
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This horrible idea for a project should be put out of its misery before it transfers its misery upon the taxpayers of Virginia and the nation.
Filed under: Fairfax Politics, Transportation
Ken has opposed rail to Dulles from the idea’s original inception.
I’m sorry, not having rail to Tyson’s Corner is lame. I’m used to civilized places, where it’s easy to get in and out of work. Apparently not so in Northern VA, where the only (practical) way to get to work in Tyson’s Corner is to drive through the congestion.
Rail may or may not reduce congestion. In fact, the most rail-heavy places in the country are those with the most congestion as well. But it will certainly make it easier to get in, out and around Tyson’s Corner. And that will benefit a lot of people. Congestion is OK, as long as you don’t have to drive too far in it. And you get that either by living close to where you need to be, or by having other ways (such as rail) to make it through the congestion. The planned development for Tyson’s Corner will address both issues.