Unfortunately, other area politicians are not behaving much better. This week in transit news, follow the money along Maryland's Intercounty Connector, and Fairfax takes a joyride. Also, our weekly report on Metro service changes.

Photo by AlbinoFlea

Intercounty Connect-The-Dots
Add yet another layer to the epic tale of the Intercounty Connector. The Post reported earlier this week that patrician-named Kingston Gould, a local development mogul (and yes, a descendent of the fabled railroad robber baron, financier, and Boss Tweed associate Jay Gould) stands to gain massive profits when and if the 18-mile highway is built. This has called into question the intent of the hundereds of thousands of dollars Gould has invested in re-electing Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich. Through his numerous corporate entities, Gould has contributed more than $50,500 directly to Erhrlich, and another $163,100 to his political party.

Gould has long owned property directly adjacent to the proposed ICC route, on which he plans to build a 2,200 acre luxury development, called Konterra, that would include a golf course, downtown retail, and 1,100 homes. The problem: without major transportation development in the area, Konterra is not feasible. Gould has asked for Ehrlich's help in gaining approval for several publicly-funded transportation projects including an exit off I-95 that would lead directly to Konterra, a Metro stop on the proposed Green Line extension, and two ICC ramps. The ICC itself is also critical to making sure that potential residents are connected to the regional road network.

To refute the allegations that Gould is essentially buying influence with the corner office, Ehrlich points out that the two have been friends for decades and that the ICC predates his time in office. However, Ehrlich was the executive who revived the project with a presidential fast-track after his predecessor shelved it. And doesn't that tight friendship with Gould just turn the relationship into back-scratching instead of influence peddling?

H&Me Sweet H&Me
We have spent several weeks and quite a few digital column inches advocating for the smart growth urbanization of Tyson's Corner. After reading Alec MagGillis' Post article on the developers' vision for this area of office parks and parking lots, our position has not changed. We would love to see Tysons morph into a mini-urban oasis in the middle of Sprawlsville. Our urban planning professors spent plenty of our credit-hours demonstrating the idea of high-density development nodes on transit corridors extending out from a central urban area, and nothing would please us more than to vindicate all that studying.

But the article did give us a bit of pause, as we thought about the fact that anyone living there would be living, literally, at the mall. We wonder: does that translate into a discount at Pottery Barn?

Driven By Bad Policy
We hate to criticize Fairfax County, which has some of the best transportation and development policies out there, but this is a pretty ridiculous. It turns out that many county employees lucky enough to get a government car have been joy-riding them in an effort to run up the odometer. Why? Fairfax requires government cars be driven 4,500 miles a year in order to justify their cost. Officials who were driving far less suddenly found themselves about to lose their precious perk, and panicked. So they began working out various systems to run up those miles — and gas bills. As the Post reported, one email brazenly implored, "We need to think about scheduling with Tricia to use her vehicle for everything we can think of, so she won't lose it."

The original intent, to trim the fat from the government fleet, is laudable. But as they might say on Project Runway, good idea, poor execution. The County has since raised the minimum to 5,000 miles. As the Post's editorial page points out, that solves nothing, and actually makes the problem worse. If the County really wants to make sure vehicles are justified, it needs to begin auditing their use, either with mandatory mileage logs, GPS tracking, or simple employee audits.

Metro Weekend Service Changes

Track maintenance on the Blue, and Red lines, and rail car testing on the Green Line will cause travel delays this weekend.

Blue Line Track Maintenance
Starting Friday, September 29, at 10 p.m., and concluding Sunday, October 1 at 10 a.m., Metrorail will operate special six-car shuttle trains sharing one track between the Franconia-Springfield and King Street Metrorail stations. Passengers traveling between these locations should add 35 minutes to their schedules.

Once a shuttle train arrives at the King Street Metrorail station, passengers will need to transfer to a Blue or Yellow Line train at the King Street Metrorail station to reach their final destination. All other Blue Line trains will run between the Largo Town Center and Huntington Metrorail stations. Passengers coming from Virginia are encouraged to use the Huntington Metrorail station located on the Yellow Line for rail service into downtown Washington.

Green Line Rail Car Tests
On Saturday, September 30, and Sunday, October 1, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Green Line trains will share one track between the Greenbelt and College Park Metrorail stations while Metro tests railcars. Passengers traveling along this portion of the Green Line should add up to 10 minutes of travel time for their trip. [Please note that Green Line trains operate every 12 to 15 minutes between these locations on Saturday and Sunday.]