Thanks for the post, Lowell.

and what's amazing is that it was the BUSH ADMINISTRATION that turned out to be the sane ones.  Bizarre.

"although the two other Northern Virginia House members got money set aside this year in a budget bill for transportation improvements in their districts, a House committee passed over Byrne's request for $ 10 million to plan a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport."

Washington post circa 94.. and we're expected to send her back to congress?

I called FTA Administrator's office to express my appreciation of the decision.  I was told that all other calls (many) were against the decision.

Thank goodness SOMEONE is thinking about logic.  Maybe someone in northern Virginia can act like a leader now.

I have my own theories, but I'd be interested in all your thoughts...

*Tim Kaine?
*Gerry Connolly?
*Frank Wolf?
*Tom Davis?
*Others?

Winners:  Tom Davis, Jim Moran, Chap Peterson
Losers:  Tim Kaine, Gerry Connolly, Frank Wolf

Where he will claim that he opposed the elevated option all along.

Moran has been one of the biggest supporters of the aboveground rail through Tysons.  His constituency in that direction lives in Reston and does not care about quality of life or urban development around Tysons.

to many of us who have followed this project for a decade or more is Gerry Connolly.

When the environmental impact statement public hearings were being conducted in the summer of 2002, Connolly was an outspoken proponent of this fatally flawed design. And he had his hand-picked Planning Commissioner, Linda Smyth (now Providence District Supervisor) by his side advising him.

Why would he do this? Is there any possibility that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that he got from development interests in Tysons had anything to do with his promotion of a bad design?

This is Connolly's project. He should live or die by it.

A)  Connolly's advocacy aside, the sponsor of this project is Kaine, who blew us all off up here in NoVA.

B)  Smyth has been a steadfast supporter of the tunnel option.  How you can even think she wants the HOT lanes, Dulles Rail, and Tysons development to happen all at the same time is risible.

For the record, all planning commissions are handpicked by the respective Supervisors.

And he needs to live or die by it.

My reference to Linda Smyth is intended to emphasize that Connolly had a planner's advice available to him. Did she provide him with bad advice or was she simply irrelevant?

I can't answer that question. But I stand by my assertion that this is Connolly's project.

Unless Kaine was involved long before he became Governor, he is a recent (within the past few years) addition.  As Governor he may become defacto leader of such efforts, but I don't see how this would be considered his project.

And how did he blow us off?  While we at RK have been against his above ground position, there's nothing to ding him on in terms of his work to get the new line.  Kaine's certainly put in a very solid effort to get some sort of rail to Tysons/Wiehle/Dulles passed.

Please explain what you mean cuz I'm not seeing it.

Jim Glimore initiated the project, Mark Warner finalized it, Tom Davis, Frank Wolf and Jim Moran pushed it, and Tim Kaine and Gerry Connolly were left holding the bag.

The BOS went for the only option available after Davis, Wolf, and Moran told Kaine that the feds wouldn't go for the tunnel option.

that Connolly was left holding was full of money.

If he was paid to provide such advocacy how can you consider it irrelevant?  Isn't that called corruption?

Both Connolly and Linda Symth have given their constituents plenty of reasons to hate them--from their arrogant and dismissive treatment of the average citizen at public hearings to their pandering to development special interest who have bank-rolled their campaigns.

You cannot dismiss a logical and fact-based statement by smearing the poster as a "Connolly Hater."

How much is Connolly paying you?

I have followed this issue closely and have many reasons for thinking that Mr. Connolly has not represented the best interests of his constituents.

Championing the El from day one, even after his constituents showed overwhelming disapproval of it is one such reason. His simultaneous acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars from development interests that would benefit from the hated design is another.

Rather than just attacking me personally, your cause would be better served by addressing the issues I raise.

His votes speak for themselves.

He voted for the El in board meetings on 10/28/02, 12/8/03 and 6/18/07.

He never once voted against the El, his rhetoric notwithstanding.

"No officer or employee of a state or local governmental or advisory agency shall: ...

"5. Accept any money, loan, gift, favor, service, or business or professional opportunity that reasonably tends to influence him in the performance of his official duties...
"6. Accept any business or professional opportunity when he knows that there is a reasonable likelihood that the opportunity is being afforded him to influence him in the performance of his official duties; ..."

I agree with Hiker Joe about Connolly. GC is not only (1) a current employee of SAIC, (2) didn't announce that he had been employed by SAIC for around a month when the BOS and he voted in 2002 to choose rail as the locally preferred alternative (with a, then, underground station at the door step of SAIC), he, also, was a consultant to West*Group and received $10,000 just 13 months prior to granting them one of the highest density in Tysons. I, also, don't recall hearing in his 2003 testimony to WMATA or the Feds during the Draft Environmental Impact Statement review that he declared he was employed by SAIC, a landowner who stood to gain millions of dollars in real estate value if the rail was approved.

It smells to me.  

Hiker Joe needs to loosen up on his obsession with Gerry Connolly.

The taxpayers of Fairfax County! Perhaps, we can engage in a discussion now of getting a regional mass transit system in place that will service the entire county rather than a narrow segment of Tysons.

...clueless as usual, puts 100% of the blame on the FTA for what happened yesterday.  Earth to Washington Post:  there's TONS of blame to go around on this fiasco, and I am the LAST person to defend the Bush Administration on ANYTHING!  For instance, why don't you talk about the role your pal Frank Wolf played in this failure?  How about your other "moderate" Republican friend Tom Davis?  Of course you won't do that, you love those guys and never question ANYTHING they do.  The question is "why?"

not because of hardball politics. Why would the Bush admin punish Wolf and Davis? Your advancing of this persecution complex is nonsense. The FTA saw a boondoggle and called it for what it was. It was not going to solve any transportation woes (in fact, gridlock would become worse) - thus it would not advance any environmental goals, including meeting mandated clean air standards.

I'm (thankfully) ignorant of the reindeer games going on here, but that's just stupid, Ben.  Nothing trollish about this.  

Under a new screen name.

You're probably right that there were some Republican nasty tactics at work here.  And I cringe at the thought that I'm actually in favor of something the Worst Administration Ever has done.   Yes, certainly part of their objective was self centered and foolish (as always).

But, as others have pointed out, there were and are serious problems with this project that made it easy for the FTA to stand against it.  These problems have nothing to do with Bush politics and/or getting Republicans in far off states elected this year.  It has to do with bad local politics, bad plans, a vision that looks backward instead of forward, and most of all, a greedy group of already rich folks trying to make a killing off this project.

of sorely needed and effective mass transit in northern Virginia better than partisan demagoguery.

This project is in trouble because it was fatally flawed. Sure, it's inevitable that there is some politics involved in a project of this nature. But the opposition to it crosses political lines, from conservative to independent to liberal.

Many legitimate reasons have been cited on this blog for its shortcomings. Addressing those would be much more constructive than chanting a stale partisan mantra.

Instead of addressing concerns about this project that raised here and elsewhere, they were completely blown off by all the brilliant "leaders" who knew better.  Now, the wonderful results...congratulations, guys!

Trust me it was about politics.  The FTA has been making supportive noises about this project for years -- otherwise Westgate wouldn't have dumped so much money into the grassroots tysonstunnel.org group to fight the ill considered elevated design.  

My gut reaction?  The true believers have been stocked in every nook and crannie of government including the FTA.  Conservaties hate, hate, hate subway and rail -- they pretend to be "pro-transit" by pushing Bus Rapid Transit projects.

From one of many articles on the subject in TWP last week:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Officials on Capitol Hill, in Richmond and at the airports authority's headquarters have speculated in recent days about what the problem might be. Some say the FTA has long been skeptical of expensive rail projects; in recent years, it has more often championed bus rapid transit projects.

Others point to a long-standing desire in the Transportation Department to move away from public investments in infrastructure. Peters, the transportation secretary, for example, refused to endorse a report published Tuesday by a bipartisan national commission on the future of the nation's transportation system. She instead issued a dissent decrying wasteful spending and the federal government's large share of the investment. She said she favored private investment and more tolling to control congestion.

I have never understood the appeal of BRT myself.  It seems like trying to do something on the cheap (I would almost say designed to fail).

There is a reason that BRT is the mass transit choice of the 21st century. It is flexible, cost-effective, and can serve large geographic areas, unlike linear and hugely expensive heavy rail.

Please don't make the standard reply that "people don't like buses".  People around here don't like buses because they're noisy, smelly and dirty. You also have to climb up stairs and pay a bus driver.  If you've ever ridden a true BRT system, you'd know that they have central fare collection, grade level boarding, multiple boarding doors...in short, everything that metrorail has.

Communities throughout the world (including some in the US) are adopting BRT as the preferred mass transit solution.  You really should look into it.

Heavy rail is designed for much higher loads.  You can probably compare it to light rail - that is probably a fairer comparison.

In response to your question, no - I wouldn't even know where you would go to even see one, and for that matter, I don't even know of any cities that are considering them.

But if you are going to the trouble of building a dedicated roadbed, why not put in steel rails instead of asphalt?  The operating and maintenance costs would be lower, and you don't have stinky busses to put up with.

You ask great questions, ericy! The short answers are:

1. BRT can provide throughput similar (and even higher) than heavy or light rail.

2. Unlike rail, BRT right of ways can provide for emergency vehicles, express lines, etc. Think about express buses to Dulles Airport. Also think about having a heart attack (as I almost did earlier when I read the FTA letter) and blowing through rush hour traffic in the ambulance because of dedicated BRT right of way.

3. You're confusing high quality BRT vehicles with the dirty city buses here. Many options are available for BRT including the compressed natural gas vehicles, some of which we have here. Soon to come are fuel cells and other innovative technologies. Remember that metro has a lot of trouble finding a reliable supplier for their heavy rail cars.

I could go on, but again, Lowell, how about a thread on alternatives to heavy rail?

anyone has ever lived in a true communist state.  Great in theory.  In execution?  Not so much.

I'll grant that maybe I've missed some great implementations of a BRT (and, looking at the Wikipedia entry for it, perhaps I have), but I think I can lay a fair claim to broad experience in public transport - I've ridden buses and trains from DC to Germany to Turkey to India to Hong Kong to Tokyo to Hawaii to San Fran to St. Paul to DC.  And honestly?  The train.  Every time.

The googling I did before responding makes me want to check out Pittsburgh (which may be a first, for me), but really, I can't fathom the political will it would take to make a "true" BRT being any less than that required for a decent rail system.

Politics are always an issue.  But, if you had read the FTA's letter, you would see clearly that the project was a mistake almost every step of the way.

The letter concluded: "However, the sheer number and magnitude of the current project's technical, financial, and institutional risks and uncertainties are unprecedented for a candidate New Starts project..."

The details make your politics-dependent argument seem even weaker.  The project was poorly bid, handed over to the wrong entity for project management (MWAA), and unpopular without a tunnel.  11thCD, Get over yourself.

FTA Administrator James Simpson is a political hack who knows next to nothing about mass transit.  He just follows orders from the White House.

Why would you put any credence into the FTA letter?  The FTA strung this project along for more than a year.  There is a lot of credence to the charge that the Republicans have better ways to spend the money this year on endangered congressional races.

Also, the Post article confirms what 11thCD said about the FTA hating rail projects.

Wolf and Davis are huge proponents of this.  Thats two House seats on the line  What has Gerry "Big Sloppy Boss" Connolly been feeding you?

Note that one of the "challenges" cited by the FTA was "a revised termination point."  The current project does not actually go to Dulles Airport, only to Wiehle Avenue.  There is currently no money allocated for extending service to the airport. The project is more accurately called "Tysons Rail."

Although there will be many politicians blaming any and everyone else, the real fault lies with the design and cost. Several billion dollars to benefit a few politically well connected land owners, such as West*Group, a major contributor to the campaigns of Gerry Connolly and numerous other elected officials and SAIC, Connolly's employer.

For the majority of Tysons land owners, a very robust circulator system is required, since the rejected design, even with four stations, does not come close to servicing the entire 1700 acres that comprises the Tysons Corner Urban Center.

A fifty to one hundred year mass transit design should not be driven by short-sighted real estate interests who control our elected officials.  That's probably a major reason the FTA rejected it.

Phase II goes all the way to the airport and beyond.  The letter is probably referencing that the project goes out past the airport further into Loudon.  I didn't see anything in the reporting on this that FTA was opposed to doing the project in two phases.

Also, where do you get your numbers?  Several billion went to West Group and others?  What specific financial transaction are you referring to?

A brief history lesson:

The $900 million in FTA New Starts funds applies only to Phase I, which goes only to Wiehle Avenue, not Dulles Airport. This includes five stations, four of which are in Tysons. The original project went to Dulles Airport and beyond with two stations in Loudoun County beyond Dulles at Routes 606 and 772.

After the Town of Herndon (prompted by many of their constituent land owners) rejected the original special tax district which would have paid for the local share of the project, it was broken into two phases: one to Wiehle Avenue (the subject of today's FTA letter) and a nebulous Phase II, which has no funding, no special tax district, nothing except hope.

As to my numbers, the FTA letter refers to "a $2.96 billion project budget." I won't quibble as to whether the Phase I project which primarily benefits West*Group and SAIC is $2 billion, $2.5 billion or $3 billion. My point remains valid and I stand by it.

The Phase 2 local taxing district (Western tax district for the businesses in Reston, Herndon, Rte 28 on through Loudoun County) was never instituted, thus there was no local funding mechanism established for the second phase past Wiehle Ave. All the income from the toll road had been dedicated to Tysons rail, which would explain why the Western tax district never materialized. These businesses saw an unfair tax coming at them like a runaway train =:0

The $900M earmarked to come from the FTA's Full Funding Grant Agreement, which originally was for the entire project into Loudoun) was hijacked solely for Tysons rail. Rail couldn't go to Dulles under the current design as there was no plan for additional monies from the Feds, no plan for funds from local businesses (like was instituted in Tysons) and no additional funds from the state.

Doesn't sound like a project meant to go to Dulles or Loudoun, eh?

The financing plan for the Dulles rail was going to be on the backs of Fairfax County tax payers and Toll Road users.  While SAIC (and its 2 favorite employees... Connolly and Clark Tyler (Tysons Tasks Force) reaped the bounty, you and I would see our taxes go up to meet cost overruns and the poor toll road users would pay, pay, and pay some more.

Thank heavens, FTA broke the code.

Why would Orangefish suggest that Chap Petersen was a winner in this debacle?

Is it because he was on both sides of the Tysons Tunnel issue within a single week?

Early last week, Petersen announced he sent a letter to the FTA calling for a "slow down" in the project.  That letter also supported the tunnel option and called for competitive bidding.  Later in the week, we found out Petersen took the opposite position, signing a letter with other General Assembly members begging the FTA to approve the project with the above ground design and sole sourcing.

Only two weeks into the General Assembly session and Senator Petersen has done his first flip-flop. We expected better out of Chap.

He needs to take a stand then stand...and take the heat, which he knew would come from the local politicians. Hopefully, he will stand with his constituents in the coming years, not just those who believe they are the hotshot know-all politicians, who also believe that the constituents don't remember campaign promises nor care what is going on. We care with a passion and we do remember!

he'd now be a winner. I'm not sure what his waffling (no doubt under pressure from Gerry Connolly and Jim Scott) means. But he certainly now rates at best a "C" for his performance. Maybe less.

A chance lost for Chap.

...but I can 99.9% guarantee you it wasn't by Gerry Connolly.  I mean, why would Chap give a rat's hindquarters what Gerry thinks after having received ZERO support from Connolly in his run against JMDD?  Also, how would Jim Scott pressure Chap?  

Blame the jerks like Connolly and Davis who really drove this forward.  I think it is silly to blame Chap because a 900 pound gorilla forced him to do something.  It made no difference anyway.  Who gives a damn?  For Chap's sake, he has to make sure he doesn't get rolled next time.

I wonder how the financial backers of TysonsTunnel are feeling about their investment right about now.  

The TysonsTunnel group was funded by some of the developers looking to make even more money off this project by having an underground rail, but they wanted a Metro project to go through no matter what.

So the great irony is that the developer's PR group, TysonsTunnel, who sued to slow the process in order to get a tunnel for their bosses, is one of the reasons cited for rejecting the entire project.  The developers were blinded by their own greed.  

Guess next time we won't be seeing any well funded "grassroots" organizations supporting good ideas.

It was apparent, I think obvious, from the beginning that the only way to correct the illegal no-bid contract award was to terminate the contract in its entirety, prepare a legitimate and legal Request for Proposal (RFP) with meaningful specs., schedule and cost performance requirements for full and open design and construction competition. The only way for that to have happended was for the contract to be terminated because of lack of funding.

In my view, based on decades of experience as project engineer and project manager for numerous Navy multi-million dollar Military Construction (MILCON) projects, this is a blessing in disguise. There are many current Navy engineers as well as retired engineers like me who could readily offer to help prepare a legitimate RFP, sit on proposal evaluation panels for source selection pursuant to contract award and oversee all phases of design and construction to assure completion much more rapidly and far less costly than would have otherwise been the case if the FTA had authorized this debacle to proceed.

If I were Homer Price I'd ask the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC)in Norfolk, VA, to prepare an agency-to-agency draft proposal for NAVFAC to take the lead for RFP preparation with assistance from their non-construction Navy engineering and contract oversight counterparts, also in Norfolk. I stand ready to provide names and telephone numbers of those I still know in the Norfolk area who could assist in this endeavor.

I'll be discussing these ideas with some of my contacts over the next few days and ask them to make direct contact with the appropriate agency representatives.

My thoughts are, as always, respectfully submitted for your comments. The main difference for me this time is
that I still have the large body of contract documents that I reviewed extensively some months ago, and am confident that these documents can be corrected relatively quickly. My belief is that the project can be designed and built with far less risk, at much less cost and can be completed several years earlier than the original contract schedule had projected - including a tunnel through Tysons Corner by applying mature technology that has been used in Europe.

                      T.C.

We can slice, dice, and run the Dulles Rail proposal through a high speed blender.....Dulles Rail was never a transportation project.  We were not impressed with the flashy WP $100,000 one page PR piece that included the promise to reduce congestion. Never in the DEIS, FEIS, or reports was there any evidence that traffic congestion would be reduced.  All Dulles Rail (known as Tysons Rail) was to do was to add more development and increase land values in Tysons.  There was always concern that rail would never get out of Tysons.

To bad this has happened it reminds me of the WILSON BRIDGE how they
fought over who would pay and if they would have built it back then it
would have cost less I guess but maybe not see I think Dulles will get built
but only after the price gets much higher so the contractors  would make
more and it would not cost them more to build it. Just like the embassy in
Iraq so wait a while and it will happen when you least expect it.

Are you people seriously so focused on winning a small battle that you're not looking at perhaps why the Bush administration is blocking this transportation project? Look at the years of Democratic victories we have had in this commonwealth. What have they been a result of? Are you really going to kid yourself by some excuses like, "We've had AWESOMEEEE CANDIDATES!!!! :-)" NO the main reason is growth in Northern Virginia. This transportation project WOULD have effectively allowed growth to accelerate in Northern Virginia, bringing many individuals from northern states who are far more perceptive to the Democratic message than people downstate. This is exactly why the administration chose to block large scale transportation projects across the country, since they have been proven to create more vibrant, open minded areas, hence leading to a electorate which is more Democratic-leaning. If the administration had let this project be approved, it may have effectively made Virginia a Democratic state in the years to come. Just think of it, places as far west as Ryan Road in Loudoun would have been rezoned to allow townhomes and condos. Congratulations on your "victory."  

well grounded imagination, point deduction for missing the reality of the Administration's competence.

'We've had AWESOMEEEE CANDIDATES!!!" except for you.  Sure, we've had fine candidates in some case, but as we've discussed a zillion times, the main reason for Virginia turning "purple" is demographic change in NOVA and elsewhere (e.g., Hampton Roads) in the Commonwealth.

The biggest problem for me was the contract, it was terrible.

I mean if MWAA really wanted the rail to Dulles to happen they had to sell it much better than they did, not fully vetting contract proposals was a terrible idea on a project that is going to have issues no matter who is running it.

Eric- great comment and so true, West*Group has to be flagellating themselves now. They gave so much money to Tysonstunnel.org and Scott Monett and he indeed stopped Metro from going ahead with the El lol.

Hiker Joe- You are right this is a blow to Connolly, but you are wrong that he never wanted the tunnel. GC just wanted the rail to happen full stop. If it could happen with the tunnel fine. He made a strategic decision and it backfired.

You are wrong about Linda Smyth, however only two board members voted against the rail Ms. Smyth and Mr. Dana Kauffman. Standing up to Gerry's bullying is proof enough to me that she was for the tunnel.

Also I will state it again, Gerry runs the NoVa delegation to Richmond. You wonder why Chap would change his mind, I never try to speak for someone else, but you have to wonder.    

You may be right about her, but I don't see irrefutable evidence that she's a true tunnel supporter.  That one vote by itself isn't strong proof of her true support of a tunnel.  

Everyone knew that the BOS was going to approve the above ground route, so she was free to vote any way she wanted without effecting the outcome.  And also recall that she got beat up pretty bad during the primary and she desperately needed to show her constituents that she was on their side - a vote for the tunnel would help make her look good regardless of how much she did, or didn't, do to make the tunnel happen.  

the vote was going to pass, but it could have been much closer. Dana and Linda were against it, as well as another dem who got talked into voting yes in the last days from his/her original no plans. That would have made it 7-3. If Dubois was a true pol she would have seen this as an opportunity to vote against, which would have helped her most likely avoid defeat in the election since the vote would have still passed and Master Gerry would have allowed it due to her own district problems. This would have made a final vote of 6-4, talk Frey  (always chirping about the budget) into voting against and it would not have passed.  

Linda Smyth was always pro-tunnel.

As for Gerry Connolly and the Faifax BOS vote on rail to Dulles, they only had one matter to vote on -- Approve the project (with the aerial option) OR kill the entire project.

There was no tunnel option for that vote or at any other times in the minds of the feds.  Davis, Wolf, and Moran passed that same message to the feds, and Kaine passed it on to Connolly.

In fact, Connolly and the Fairfax BOS issued several statements urging all parties involved to allow for a tunnel alternative.

I know this does not fit into the script of the Connolly bashers on this blog, but it is the truth.

Just as with the Iraq invasion and other administration policies and actions, the Gang of Ideologues made its decision and searched for the reasons, real or invented.

Had the process been more open and transparent, workers would be putting down rail already. Some people decided to take shortcuts, and they brought the process down.

Former Governor and expected GOP Senate candidate Jim Gilmore was the one who put this deal together with the secrecy, the non-competitive bidding, and the aerial option.

But don't expect Mark Warner to make this a Senate campaign issue because he was forced to dot the i's and cross the t's on the deal when he was governor.

And poor Tim Kaine and Gerry Connolly were left with this bag of crap contract.

As for the tunnel option, the tunnel was looked at at the beginning of the process, but the technology available at the time did not make it feasible.

The TysonsTunnel people and the whole new tunnel option didn't get presented until the tail end of the multi-year planning process and then, in the eyss of the feds, it was too late.