De Rail Denied!

The Fed effectively puts the kybosh on the current plan to extend Dee Cee's metro out to Dulles:

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."

Yee-ouch.

This, IMHO, is outstanding news. While running the metro out to Dulles would have been a good thing, the current configuration of the plan called for a gi-normous elevated section right through the heart of Tyson's Corner, the construction of which would have been catastrophically disruptive and the presence of which would have been hidious. I don't live any great way away from that area, and the thought of having to fight my way through it on a regular basis was downright nightmarish.

A plucky ad hoc group has been lobbying to get the damned thing put through Tyson's via a tunnel. I reckoned their collective gooses to be cooked until this nooz came out, but if and when planners have another go at this project, perhaps they'll have a better chance of getting their way.

Woot!