More thoughts on Tysons-Dulles transit expansion

Dan M. commented on yesterday's post about transit planning/value engineering in the Dulles "Rail" corridor, and I think his comments deserve wider distribution, so here goes:

If I were in charge of designing this project, I would ditch the eastern-most station and terminate the line at Westpark (the westernmost station in Tysons), but concentrate on getting as much of the line in the core of Tysons underground as possible. I would build a BRT line from Westpark to Dulles airport, introduce a specially-branded bus circulator for trips within Tysons and in the very long term would consider a light rail line running along Chain Bridge Road from Tysons Corner to Burke Center VRE, through downtowns Vienna and Fairfax and serving the gigantic student population at George Mason.

That project - even with the light rail to Burke - would cost less and do more than building a half-assed Metro line all the way to Loudoun County.

What I would not do, however, is force a mode transfer at the West Falls Church Metro Station.
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While I still like the idea of a circular streetcar line in the Tysons area, these kinds of ideas are what I'd be considering if I were doing transit planning out Fairfax County way. Dan emphasized more strongly than I the point about the importance of underground service in the Tysons Corner area. Given the congestion, I think it's the right way to go.

The overall point is where are the best opportunities and the costs and benefits of planning to serve these opportunities. Service to Dulles is "competing" with NYC, London, and other "world class" cities by having the international airport connected to the center city.

While I like that idea because my foremost interest is in advocating for the central city, from a regional transit perspective, serving that limited population isn't necessarily the best use of scarce transit infrastructure investment monies.

And, the BART extension to San Francisco Airport hasn't been all that successful. See:
-- BART'S PENINSULA LINE FALLS SHORT OF HOPES - Competition from cheaper Baby Bullet trains could be hurting ridership on extension;
-- BAY AREA - BART to halt many rush-hour trains to SFO - Lack of Peninsula riders brings change -- system will save almost $4 million a year;
-- Bay transit headed wrong way

Also see these blog entries from March 2005:

-- Dr. Transit's Prescription for Fairfax County Transportation Planning: More Openness, More Creativity;
-- Fairfax Talks Transportation (Privately) -- Dr. Transit; and
-- Maybe the Virginia Railway Express and Fredericksburg can learn from Ride On?

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