Transit

Dulles rail decision from a backroom deal?

by David Alpert   •   January 30, 2008 10:23 am

Is the DOT and FTA trying to force Virginia to sell the Dulles Toll Road? Did the FTA work out a deal with private investors ahead of time to reject public financing? BeyondDC picks up on an interesting angle from the Post's report that private investors are floating an idea to finance the Dulles rail extension by privatizing the Dulles Toll Road (which will require raising tolls). Two Virginia Congressmen, Democrat Jim Moran and Republican Frank Wolf, claim the FTA's decision is intended to back Virginia into a corner where its only option is privatization; BeyondDC sees this as meaning "the Feds struck a back room deal with private investors."

I keep bringing up the Virginia elected officials are totally baffled by the motivation behind this decision. Virginia did everything the FTA asked, and the FTA even told Congress the project was going forward. Back-room deal or no, there's plenty of evidence (like Peters' personal anti-rail bias) that political motives are at work.

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.