The first phase of building Washington, D.C.’s $5.6
billion Silver Line Metro commuter tracks into Dulles International is on
schedule for completion next year, and will run from Tysons Corner to Reston,
but the next leg of trackage through Loudoun County is in jeopardy before the all
Republican Loudoun County Board. Loudoun County must vote its stretch of track
up or down by early July. If the Loudoun portion of the Silver Line fails, the
project would have to be rerouted at best and might get killed altogether at
worst.
Loudoun County’s projected share of the track and
station construction cost is projected at $275 million, plus $16 million in
annual operating subsidies to Metro once trains to Dulles begin operating.
Despite a study from George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis
reporting that completing the commuter line through Loudoun County will produce
40,000 jobs to the county by 2040, and drive more than $55 billion in potential
economic activity, Republican board members are taking their cues from Virginia
Governor Robert E. McDonnell, whose tepid support for the Silber Line
construction has not included more than a 5% state contribution towards the
cost of building the tracks. Battles over a labor agreement signed by the
airport authority which the Republican governor considers unduly pro-labor have
stalled final gubernatorial approval of a preliminary commitment of $150
million in operating subsidies for the commuter rail project.
Even if the project could survive a pull out by
Loudoun County, financing for construction and operation of the commuter line
would have to be renegotiated, a route redesign performed, and new right of way
acquired; and the resulting loss of time would undoubtedly drive up the
finished project budget by another $1 billion or so. Rather than looking to
Richmond for guidance on this issue, Loudoun County should be listening to its
own constituents – every major business group in the county supports Silver
Line construction as presently planned.
