Here’s Bill Turque’s story about the Office of Inspector General’s report on the Rail-to-Dulles project in the Washington Post. Turque summarized the thrust of the study better than I did in my insta-analysis yesterday: “The estimated cost of the proposed Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport has grown so significantly over the past three years that it may not meet guidelines for federal funding.”
Turque also noted an important finding that I neglected to include in my summary: “The report said costs will continue to rise. It cited a clause in the state’s contract with Dulles Transit that calls for the contract price to increase each day past Aug. 1 that federal approval to begin work on final design is delayed.”
Rep. Tom Davis told Turque he would continue fighting for federal funding but said changes would have to be made in the project’s cost structure.
“I think the project has issues,” he said. He expressed particular concern about tolls from the Dulles Toll Road, which are expected to pick up a major share of the local costs. At the moment, he said, no one really knows how much they would have to increase to finance the rail line.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said.
Here is the Associated Press’ story on the report.