White House Blamed for Metro Extension Delays

WHO'S AT FAULT for the back-and-forth haggling that's delaying approval for the proposed Metrorail extension to Dulles Airport? If you ask Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman Gerald E. Connolly — and editors at The Post did — it's the Bush Administration.

Last week, the U.S. Transportation Department released a report saying that the $2.7 billion price tag for the first phase of the project, which would run from Falls Church through Tysons Corner (remember the tunnel debate there?) to Reston, might be too high to qualify for $900 million in federal money.

Connolly said the move reflects a reticence at the Federal Transit Administration to fund mass transportation projects:

Like a lot of this administration, we have an EPA that doesn't really believe in the environmental mission. We have an FTA that isn't quite comfortable with its transit mission. ... They would love, I suppose, to look at other options other than providing $900 million to this project.

An FTA spokesman refuted Connolly's remarks, telling The Post that transit spending has increased since President Bush took office in 2001.

» "White House Is Faulted for Delay" [WaPo]
» EARLIER: "Feds Cast Doubt on Tysons Rail; Saga Drags On" [Free Ride/Express]

Posted By Greg Barber at 10:09 AM on August 1, 2007 Tagged in Fairfax County , Free Ride , Metro , Top Stories , Transit , Tysons Corner , Virginia

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