The Observer Newspapers | Rail Project Gets Big Boost

April 17, 2008

Rail Project Gets Big Boost

Gov. Kaine earned his salary on Wednesday when the Federal Transit Administration announced that it would support the plan for Dulles rail after rejecting the decades-old project in January.

The proposal was almost thrown out with the trash when the Feds suddenly shifted direction and threatened to deny almost $1 billion in funds at the beginning of the year.

Since then, information has been hard to come by, but there had been indications and words of assurance from Virginia's Congressional delegation and the governor's office that some compromise would be reached with the federal government.

On Wednesday, the fruits of that behind-the-scenes labor became obvious. The project has been heavily scaled back, with some portions removed from the funding plan to be eventually funded by the state in some other manner.

Some planned work to make possible a future stop at Wolf Trap has been dropped to cut costs. And guess what? There's still no tunnel through Tysons Corner. Perhaps the anti-Dulles rail coalition that formed in protest of the five-year-old plan to build an above-ground track through Tysons will finally settle down and quit complaining.

The rail project has survived a serious threat to it's viability that was helped in some way by the naysayers. Now we can see that if we don't all get behind the project it will be an uphill battle to completion that will be marked all the way by expensive delays.

With this week's announcements, can't you just picture the rail now? Can't you just see the stations and picture the cars. Finally, that vision may just be a few years away.