Dulles Corridor Toll Increase

The Washington Airports Task Force (WATF) supports the proposed increase in tolls for Route 267 in the Dulles Corridor, and offers the following observations.

1. The extension of Metrorail through the Dulles Corridor to Loudoun County will serve more than one-quarter of the entire Metro region's economy, according to information provided by George Mason University's Institute for Public Policy. The Dulles and Route 28 Corridors, which intersect at the airport's front entrance, were an insignificant portion of the entire Metro area's economy in 1980. Today they are nearly one-quarter of the region's economy.
2. Without the construction of the rail transit system to Loudoun County, the Dulles Corridor will become dysfunctional by 2030, like the rest of the region's road system. The region is planning to provide a 12% increase in highway capacity to meet a projected 36% increase in demand. The rail will provide people with an alternative without which about 40,000 additional cars each day would try and use the Dulles Corridor in 2030.
3. Rail to Loudoun County will not solve all Northern Virginia's transportation problems, but it will help ensure the continued viability of the Dulles Corridor as a 21st Century Main Street between the airport - the world gateway - and the region's largest business centers - the federal center and Tysons Corner.
4. An increase in the toll has been a cornerstone of the financing plan to bring rail through the Dulles Corridor to Loudoun County since the plan was announced as part of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement issued in June 2002, so it should be no surprise to anyone.
5. The tolls have not been increased since they were first set in 1984 - 21 years ago. If the toll had been increased to keep pace with the cost of living, the maximum toll would now be $1.54, not 85¢, according to the American Institute of Economic Research. The proposed increase would set the maximum toll at $1.35. This also is less than a maximum toll of about $7 contained in a recent HOT lanes proposal offered by a private company as an alternative to rail. Incidentally, the last time Virginia seriously addressed its surface transportation was in 1986. Since then, the money available for transportation has declined as the demand for transportation has increased. For example, the 17.5¢ per gallon gasoline tax set in 1986 is now only worth 10¢ in current day values.
6. Neither the existing toll nor the increase can be siphoned off to be spent elsewhere. Thanks to the late Carrington Williams and former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton when they were Chairman of the Planning Committee and Chairman of the Board respectively for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the state must apply the bulk of surplus toll revenues to transportation improvements within the corridor 1.

The Dulles Corridor is one of the very few transportation arteries in Northern Virginia with a fundable long range plan to keep it viable. The rail funding represents new money. It does not detract from funding for other transportation initiatives, nor can the money be spent other than in the Dulles Corridor.

For all these reasons, it's time to bite the bullet, raise the tolls and get on with the rail project.

1. The Dulles Corridor was created as part of the airport by the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration planners in the late 1950's foresaw the need for local access lanes in the corridor, in addition to the Airport Access Road and a rail link between the airport and the center of Washington. In the early 1980's the original toll road was built on an easement granted to VDOT by the Airports Authority - then part of the Federal Aviation Administration. When additional lanes were added, an additional easement was required from the Airports Authority. Messrs. Williams and Holton insisted that in exchange for the additional easement, any surplus revenues from the toll road be applied to further transportation improvements in the Dulles Corridor, and specifically, rail.