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Around 200 political leaders, business leaders and local residents filled an auditorium at the Center for Innovative Technology, in Herndon, last Thursday to find out more about the future of rail to Dulles.
A thick study of the project, including draft plans for the rail system, was released at the end of June. There will be three rail public hearings at the end of July.
Attendees at last Thursday’s meeting peppered Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Commonwealth of Virginia staff members with questions about the project.
Bruce Bennett, a member of the Hunter Mill Defense League, a citizen’s group with members from along Hunter Mill Road, asked about Fairfax County’s plan to allow density increases along the Dulles Corridor depending on funding commitments. Bennett wondered what would happen if funding for the $3.3 billion project was promised, but didn’t come through. He mentioned the Virginia Department of Transportation, which recently had to scale back several road improvement projects because of unanticipated changes in funding ability.
Fairfax County Executive Tony Griffin said that if the federal government, which is responsible for half of the rail portion of the project and 60 percent of the bus rapid transit portion, promises funds they will, eventually, be delivered.
“Unfortunately, money is a very political thing,” Griffin said. “There are instances when the payout schedule is not there. But if the commitment is there, the money will come. It’s just a question of how long.”
ANOTHER AUDIENCE member asked why the $3.3 billion cannot be used on other road improvement projects in the region. But Corey Hill, manager of the Northern Virginia Section of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, explained that the federal money will only be available for a rail project.
“There is not $3.3 billion sitting in a vault somewhere and we’re trying to figure out how to spend it,” Hill said. “That money will not be there without rail.”
Griffin said the rail project, which is projected to be completed by 2010, will benefit local roads.
“The idea is that rail will take traffic off of the Toll Road,” Griffin said. “The only other option would be to knock down the sound walls and start acquiring private property for new lanes.”
Reston resident Tom Grubisich pointed out that the study predicts 101,000 annual rail trips by 2025. He wondered how organizers planned to fund a feeder bus system, which would help increase ridership.
Fred Selden, the Fairfax County director of planning, said the county will probably enact a proffer system, in which developers have to help pay for additional buses in order to raise property densities.
“We will look at developers to do that within a half a mile of the stations,” Selden said.
Griffin also mentioned that the Fairfax Connector bus system, which currently runs up and down the Dulles Corridor, was originally designed to serve as a feeder to a rail system.