NEW STUDY OF DULLES RAIL LINK URGED
The Washington Post
A U.S. Senator and a congressman want a new look at an old idea, a rapid-rail transit line to Dulles International Airport.
Sen. Paul Trible and Rep. Frank R. Wolf (both R-Va.) this week plan to introduce bills that would order a federal feasibility study of such a line, which would be designed to draw more flights and passengers to the airport and speed Virginia commuters to and from the District of Columbia.
Plans for a 20-mile spur off of a future extension of the Metro Orange Line have been considered and rejected repeatedly in the past 20 years as too costly.
Proponents argue that times are changing as air traffic picks up at the airport and commercial development continues in western Fairfax County and along the Dulles Access Road. "We must search for creative and inexpensive solutions to transportation problems," said Trible. "And this study begins that process."
The line would begin at Metro's West Falls Church station, which is tentatively due to open in 1986, and would run on the surface westward in the grassy median of the access road, which the Federal Aviation Administration has long reserved for a possible rail line.
Trains might stop at Tysons Corner, Wolf Trap, REston, Herndon and Route 28, according to congressional sources.
As conceived by legislators, the system would be "light rail," using small, light cars resembling streetcars that lack many of the extras that have made Metro costly. "We have been told that light rail is four times cheaper than Metro," said Wolf.
Metro planners considered a link in the 1960's when the subway system was being designed. The issue was examined again in detail in 1971, when a study found that a Dulles-West Falls Church link built to standards of the Metro system would cost about $100 million in 1977 dollars.
A bill authorizing design money got through the U.S. Senate in 1972 but not the House of Representatives. Eight years later the House passed a bill calling for a feasibility study, but it failed in the Senate.
Despite such setbacks, Metro officials have long assumed that a link might be built eventually. The West Falls Church station is designed to allow a tie-in.
The issue is whether ridership would justify the cost of building the line. The 1971 study concluded that there would not be enough riders if FAA projections come true; the agency estimated that 25 million persons would use Dulles yearly by 1990. At present, about 3 million persons use it annually.
Critics question whether buses make more sense. A rail line could follow an identical route to the access road, which could easily handle express buses. "The advantage with the bus is that you don't have to put tracks in for it," said Albert Roohr, a planner at Metro.
Another obstacle is that completion of Metro's planned 101-mile system is in doubt because of limitations on federal funds. Adding a line could be politically difficult and add competition for funds.
Trible said yesterday that it has been assumed by proponents that Metro would not build or run the line to Dulles. In addition to staying out of the Metro construction funding fight, this would allow the system to operate more cheaply by avoiding Metro's union labor.
Funding might be a combination of federal, state, local and private money. Congress has shown willingness to spend money to promote Dulles.
Last year, the FAA completed a 2.5-mile stretch of highway at a cost of $25 million to link the access road to I-66. The federal government has also funded purchase of buses to up-grade transportation between the airport and downtown Washington.
You know, with all the discussion about the Yellow Line having dual terminals (Franconina, Huntington) -- is there REALLY any reason why the same couldn't have been done with Orange? (Vienna & Dulles) Just a thought, I know that the Silver would terminate at S/A -- but the Red and Yellow also have different terminals during different times of day....hmmmm
Are you suggesting Orange be both Dulles and Vienna to Stadium-Armory and New Carrollton? No point in my opinion, since there are not going to be any Dulles to New Carrollton trains or Vienna to Stadium-Armory trains. However, there will be Vienna to Largo trains, and as far as I know, those will be called Orange.
I think the service patterns should be as follows for trains on the C and D Routes when the Dulles Line starts:
Dulles (Route 772) to New Carrollton
Vienna to Largo
Franconia-Springfield to Stadium-Armory
Well, actually, I thought it would be, at least according to one of the plans...Franconia - Largo , Dulles - S/A, and Vienna to New Carrollton --- but, as they say, nothing is etched in stone, we're still several years off.
That is the plan, but some Oranges need to go through to Largo to make up for the lost Blues that are being sent via the Fenwick Bridge to DC. My idea avoids that problem, since it matches the levels of traffic on each end of the line with the appropriate branches on each end, similar to when trains ran from New Carrollton to National Airport to economize on the car assignment.