The Kaine administration is blasting the federal administrators who rejected $900 million in federal funding for the Rail-to-Dulles project, complaining that the Federal Transit Administration pulled an unexpected U-Turn. As Amy Gardner sums up the argument in the Washington Post:
Federal transportation officials gave incremental approvals to the proposed Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport on many of the same issues that they cited in rejecting it this week, according to letters, memos and interviews.
At several points in the past two years, Federal Transit Administration officials said the project was doing fine on cost and construction management, according to the correspondence and phone calls with Virginia officials.
But Thursday, the tone changed. FTA chief James S. Simpson declared the project unfit for federal funding. And he pointed to many of the issues that project officials and Virginia politicians had thought were settled and done with.
FTA officials respond that the project backers misread their comments of encouragement. Furthermore, on the critical issue of the project’s cost, the Kaniacs failed to deliver proof of cost cuts before the FTA’s decision-making deadline. Who’s to blame for the miscommunication? I don’t know.
But it is important to sort out responsibility for this fiasco. Virginia is on the hook for tens of millions of dollars of design and engineering costs that it could have saved had it not jumped the gun. The Kaine administration can’t be blamed for failing to salvage Dulles Rail because the project, under the current funding structure, is inherently unsalvageable. But the Kaniacs should be held to account for wasting those millions of dollars on design costs. How much was that number, by the way? Published figures do not say.
I raised a warning flag back in November. (See “Damn the Torpedos, Full Speed Ahead!”) When it was reported that design work would begin on the project even without formal FTA approval, I asked, “Isn’t that risky? After all, the Federal Transit Administration has expressed significant reservations about the project. Federal funding, which would pay roughly 25 percent of the project cost, is hardly guaranteed.” Somehow, I got the message, and I’m nothing but a two-bit pundit. On the other hand, I was paying attention. Apparently those who were determined to push the project through were not.
At the risk of repeating previous posts, it’s time to stop the finger pointing. This incarnation of Rail to Dulles is dead. The Kaine administration needs to dust itself off and start working on transportation alternatives for Tysons Corner and the Dulles corridor. There are alternatives, and there’s little time to waste.