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A Silver Line topic: guaranteed to generate a ton of comments!

That the rail yard is on the grounds of Dulles Airport simplifies the engineering changes of the line itself if Loudoun opts out (for now). They will have to decide where to cut off the elevated tracks heading north from Dulles to the Greenway and how to configure the connecting tracks to the rail yard. But that should not require a major re-design.

The two stations in Loudoun WILL get built. The only question, IMO, is whether they get built in Phase 2 or 4-15 years later. If the Loudoun board votes against the Silver Line, it will likely be by no more than a 5-4 vote against. After 1 or 2 election cycles, the board could easily switch back to 6-3 or 7-2 in favor of the Silver Line to Loudoun.

The problem is the uncertainty it creates and the difficulty of re-assembling the additional funding later, with the extension to Loudoun now costing more. The issue for Fairfax is what happens if they invest in adding 1,000 to 2,000 parking spaces each at Innovation Center and Herndon-Monroe and then the Loudoun County stations are back in and built 3 years after the extension to Dulles opens. Does Fairfax (or WMATA?) get stuck with expensive excess parking capacity that does not generate the revenue they projected when expanding the parking garages?

by AlanF on Jun 25, 2012 1:48 pm • link • report