I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so:
The federal government will not fund the Metro extension to Dulles International Airport without drastic changes, officials said yesterday, effectively scuttling a $5 billion project planned for more than 40 years and widely considered crucial to the region’s economic future.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Federal Transit Administration chief James S. Simpson stunned Virginia politicians at a meeting on Capitol Hill yesterday when they outlined what Simpson called “an extraordinarily large set of challenges” that disqualifies the project from receiving $900 million in federal money. Without that, the project would die.
“The sheer number and magnitude of the current project’s technical, financial and institutional risks and uncertainties are unprecedented,” Simpson wrote yesterday in a follow-up letter to Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). “I have serious concerns whether it would be appropriate to continue further investment.”
Kaine said Virginia officials and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is managing the project, would address the concerns of Simpson and Peters by Monday. But several project supporters, including state and congressional officials, said privately that it would not be possible to meet all of the federal government’s demands. The federal and state governments have spent more than $140 million in planning the rail line.
Quite honestly, I can’t say I’m disappointed. The entire project seemed like a boondoggle to me.
