Bringing
Rail to the Dulles Corridor
On
July 29, 30, and 31, residents and businesses in the Dulles Corridor
will have an opportunity to comment on plans to bring rail transit to
the Dulles Corridor.
Rail
transit has been considered a key component of transportation services
in the Dulles Corridor since planning began 40 years ago for Washington
Dulles International Airport. The
median of the Dulles Airport Access Road (DAAR) has steadfastly been
reserved by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for a future
rail line to the airport since 1962.
The
1999 Major Investment Study Supplement proposed a four-phase plan to
bring rail to the Dulles Corridor.
The first two phases, express bus service and enhanced express
bus service, have been implemented with the opening of the Herndon/Monroe
parking garage in Fairfax County and the Dulles North Transit Center
in Loudoun County. Bus service
in the corridor has tripled and now serves 12,000 passengers per day.
Phase three Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and phase four rail are being evaluated
in the Draft EIS along with the no-build alternative.
BRT
differs from the enhanced express bus service in that it uses buses
running in the DAAR lanes to emulate rail service.
Passengers pay fares before boarding, board from a plaform level
with the bus floor, and disemabark swiftly through multiple rail-style
doors. Three BRT alternatives vary in the combination
of stations and stops. BRT stations
would be located in the median of the DAAR. BRT stops would be located at park-and-ride facilities alongside
the highway. BRT 1 would have
five stations and three stops; BRT 2, three stations and four stops;
and BRT 3, one station at Reston Parkway and 6 stops.
The
Metrorail alternative would serve Tysons Corner and extend out the corridor
to 772 in Loudoun County. The
combined BRT/Metrorail alternative would extend rail to Tysons Corner
and operate BRT in the rest of the corridor to 772 in Loudoun County. Another alternative would phase implementation of BRT and Metrorail
improvements beginning with BRT for the length of the corridor and eventually
replacing it with Metrorail service, first to Tysons Corner and then
out to Dulles Airport and Route 772 in Loudoun County.
The
rail alternative would extend from the Metrorail Orange line near the
West Falls Church station out the Dulles Connector Road, through Tysons
Corner travel in the median of the DAAR and Dulles Greenway to Route
772. Two basic alignments have been developed to serve Tysons Corner:
a "dog leg" with three or four stations along Routes 123 and
7 and a "loop" alternative which splits into a single outbound
track serving the West Park area and an inbound track which follows
the Route 7/123 alignment.
Originally
BRT was seen as a way to enhance transit service quickly and at a lower-cost
than rail. The EIS analyses
have shown that the BRT alternative has a limited capacity to serve
the growing demand. Opening year ridership for BRT 1 is projected
to be 30,000, of which 4,500 would be new riders. The rail alternative would generate 72,000
riders per day of which 33,000 would be new riders. Engineering studies indicate that in order to construct the rail
phase, BRT facilities would have to be relocated during the 15 to 18
months of construction and testing for rail.
Over
the next 25 years, the Dulles corridor will continue to grow as a regional
employment destination and population center at almost double the anticipated
growth rate of the entire Washington Metropolitan region.
Population in the corridor is expected to increase by 56 percent
adding 206,000 persons and jobs by 71 percent adding 203,000 jobs.
The
rail link between the region’s designated international airport and
the National Capital is long overdue.
Washington Dulles International Airport is expected to increase
passenger trips from 20 million in 2000 to 37 million by 2010 and expects
to double the number of employees from 15,000 to 30,000.
The Dulles Center of the National Air and Space Museum projects
3 to 5 million visitors per year when it opens in December 2003.
Local
plans support transit. Last year, Fairfax and Loudoun counties revised
their comprehensive plans to encourage transit-oriented development
at transit station areas.
Rail
supports quality of life. The quality of life in Northern Virginia its
physical beauty and the attractiveness of its numerous educational,
recreational and cultural resources is threatened by growing congestion. Because of poor air quality, the region is
designated a serious non-attainment area.
Rail provides the potential to significantly reduce vehicle miles
of travel in the corridor and help improve air and water quality. Rail transit offers residents, employees, and
visitors a high-quality, stress-free alternative to driving.
Rail
provides the needed capacity. Rail is projected to move four
times as many passengers as BRT (9,600 versus 2,370) and rail has the
capacity to ultimately move 60,000 passengers per hour in a single direction
so that it will be able to accommodate increasing demand.
We
urge you to attend the public hearings and make your views known. Next year, Congress will approve the reauthorization of the surface
transportation act. With the
selection of rail as the LPA, work can begin on securing a full funding
grant agreement with the federal government and authorizations for federal
funding to construct the rail extension.
We need your help to keep this rail project on track.
For
additional information about the project DEIS and the public hearings,
please contact the John Dittemeir, Dulles Rapid Transit Project, at
1-888-4 at www.dullestransit.org.
Patty
Nicoson is President of the Dulles Corridor Rail Association, a non-profit
advocacy group for rail in the Dulles corridor by 2010.
