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Fear Mongering on Rail

Clearly, a tunnel in Tysons Corner for rail is preferred. It is the best option. That said, there seems to be a group of nuts out there who want no rail unless it is underground. That is mindless. From the Connection:

"If Dulles rail passes through Tysons Corner above ground instead of below, the economic engine of the Virginia will deteriorate, said Robert Coleman, a Tysons Corner resident. Coleman stood in the foyer of the Fairfax County Government Center with a disgusted look on his face. He said he had not talked to one person in his 314-unit apartment building, The Regency, who didn’t want metro to be underground. "It will destroy the look of the corridor. My whole concern is the elevated rail will make Tysons look like a slum," said Coleman, president of The Regency board of directors."

This guy apparently has not ventured outside of Fairfax County. Elevated rail is used across the world in numerous cities - many of which are economic engines that blow Virginia away. Yes, we support a tunnel, it makes the most logical sense. However, if a tunnel is not doable for whatever reason, we still need rail.

Posted by Historic Vienna Posts on June 7, 2007 10:58 PM |

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From today's Washington Post:

High-Wire Act
The Fairfax supervisors should vote for elevated rail.
Sunday, June 10, 2007; B06

TUNNEL FEVER has once again gripped Fairfax County, and, according to Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), the Board of Supervisors faces an unattractive choice this month. The board is scheduled to vote June 18 on whether to commit its share of federal money for building the Dulles rail extension, an addition to Metrorail's Orange Line that would eventually run to Dulles International Airport. Voting yes would reduce the already slim chances for a popular proposal to dig a tunnel underneath Tysons Corner, a proposal that would help make the region's "second downtown" significantly more pedestrian friendly and aesthetically appealing. But voting no -- or, as some tunnel advocates would like, voting yes with conditions -- would diminish the chances for a tunnel, too, because it would imperil federal funding for the whole project, which currently entails an elevated track above Tysons.

We have supported the tunnel option. A subway would help transform Tysons from a pedestrian's nightmare into an urban space capable of supporting high-density development, smartly positioned astride a transit line. However, the priority must be to build the rail line, elevated or sunken. The board should approve the project without conditions when it meets this month.

Mr. Connolly, who would prefer a tunnel, nevertheless insists that disagreement among local authorities on the plans under review at the Federal Transit Administration, which call for an elevated track, could doom the project. He also points out that three recent studies concluded that a tunnel would be more expensive, possibly disqualifying it from receiving federal cash. And pausing to pursue the tunnel option might result in Northern Virginia getting knocked out of line for federal money. Die-hard tunnel advocates, on the other hand, complain that the contract Fairfax is considering did not emerge from a competitive bidding process and that the supervisors should insist on bidding out the tunnel option, a plan that supporters think will not ultimately run afoul of federal authorities.

The supervisors can vote yes while restating their desire to reexamine the possibility of building a tunnel. But any binding conditions might very well end up destroying Fairfax's best chance in decades of getting a new public transit corridor -- and reaping the many benefits it will bring. It's time to build the Dulles extension.

Posted by: Historic Vienna | June 10, 2007 06:35 PM

Today's Examiner - I did not notice that the Wash Post had mentioned this:

Team offers to build Dulles rail for $2.23B

William C. Flook, The Examiner
WASHINGTON -

A team of contractors is offering to build the first half of Rail to Dulles with a tunnel under Tysons Corner and a price tag about $400 million cheaper than the existing plan.

The defiant and likely doomed $2.23 billion proposal comes on the eve of major decisions for the transit project and represents the latest move in a complex, protracted battle to resurrect the Tysons tunnel idea.

The team includes Dragados, a Madrid-based tunnel construction firm that has made repeated overtures to the commonwealth to build the track under Tysons.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine last year dropped the underground route in favor of an unpopular aerial track after federal transit officials warned him that associated delays and price escalation would make the entire project ineligible for federal money.

Officials show no signs of reversing course or considering a new proposal. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is taking over the project, already has approved a design-build contract that could bring the price of the initial 11.6 mile-phase to as much as $2.7 billion.

Fairfax supervisors received the new tunnel offer just days before a scheduled vote Monday on approving $400 million in project funding.

“Please make an effort to prevent the biggest travesty that the State of Virginia will have ever undertaken,” William Gallagher of KGP Design Studios wrote in a June 15 letter urging supervisors to make the funding contingent on the construction of a tunnel.

Posted by: vienna mommy | June 18, 2007 01:23 PM

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