Transit on Thursday: Silver Line, Red Light Edition
After some much needed R&R (that's rest and relaxation, not roads and rails), Transit on Thursday returns to Washington only to find that all hell has broken loose on Metro. The Sliver Line extension to Dulles, looking good when we left, is turning into a first rate debacle, and clouds of smoke seem to be drifting though the tunnels on just about every line.
We can't turn our backs for even a few seconds, can we?!? What gives?
That's No Way to Build a Railroad
Up until a few weeks ago, the only question swirling around the proposed Metro extension out to Dulles through Tysons Corner was, "How?". Officials and residents busied themselves debating whether their coveted project, four decades in the making, would run through Tysons on an elevated track or through a more pedestrian- and developer-friendly underground tunnel. Then the Federal Transit Administration, which had provisionally offered to put up more that $9 billion in funding for the project, issued a warning. "Cut costs or we walk away," was what their report said in so many words.
So how did this project, seen by many Northern Virginians as crucial to helping stem the increasing traffic in the area and morphing Tysons Corner into a suburban mini-city, suddenly fall out of favor with the feds? Two words: cost-effectiveness.
Photo by christaki
The FTA's $900 billion has always been contingent on the project meeting certain criteria which the agency lumps together into a measure of cost-effectiveness. The Dulles project, the largest ever considered by FTA, has always teetered near the edge of what is acceptable in FTA officials' eyes. Delays and cost overruns during the tunnel debate have finally pushed it over the edge, and FTA is calling for a $250 million price cut to qualify for their contribution.
There are two problems with this. First, to cut the required $250 million, project designers will likely cut features like pedestrian bridges or parking lots that are considered "unnecessary" to the operation of the line. However, these are the very features that will make the rail line user-friendly. Omitting them will decrease ridership and revenue, as well as reducing the impact the project might have on the traffic congestion and economic development. In four more words: penny wise, pound foolish.
Second, FTA's whole idea of cost-effectiveness is bogus. It essentially looks at the average amount of time the project would save a person driving between its two end points, and then calculates the cost per minute saved multiplied by the expected ridership. If the price of saving a few minutes is too high, or projected ridership is initially too low, then no money for you! This completely ignores people who would take intermediate trips, as well as new riders who might use the service as development along the line continues. FTA is also supposed to include these other measures, but they've been routinely criticized by the General Accounting Office for failing to do it. A few pretty big omissions, if we might say.
Like tattoos and tax attorneys, transit service is not something you can buy on the cheap. You get what you pay for, and if you make the investment up front, you'll be rewarded for decades to come. If you skimp, you'll get a sub-par result that will end up costing you more to clean up than it would have to do it right the first time. That there's currently more smoke and flames than 8-car trains running though Metro's existing tunnels should be proof enough of that.
Labor Day Metro Schedule
For those of you sticking around town this weekend, Metro will be operating on a Sunday schedule on Monday, due to the Labor Day Holiday. The Cheverly, Landover and New Carrollton Metro stations on the Orange line will also be entirely closed starting 10 p.m., Friday, August 31 to 11:59 p.m., Monday, September 3 for major track work. Plan accordingly.