Officials Thinking About Shifting Some of Silver Line Costs Back to Counties

There were no concrete decisions in Thursday's meetings in the ongoing discussion on how to cut costs for Metrorail's Phase II of rail to Dulles.

However, the idea has been proposed to transfer some of the financial burden back to the local governments.

The latest estimate for Phase II of the Silver Line, which will run from Reston to Dulles International Airport and into Loudoun County, is $3.5 billion. More than $300 million of those costs would be for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority's  (MWAA) proposed underground station at the airport, which brings the and total cost estimate in about $1 billion more than expected.

At this week's meeting between U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Loudoun and Fairfax County Supervisors and MWAA officials, LaHood asked stakeholders to discuss with their boards the idea of putting public-private partnerships in place to take some of the burden off of the Dulles Toll Road.

Toll Road fees are predicted to be $10 or more in future years if some of the bill is not split

The Washington Post reported that an Federal Transit Administration official proposed transferring responsibility for the planned Route 28 rail station to Fairfax County to save an estimated $136 million.

Under the proposal, Fairfax and Loudoun counties would also take charge of building five commuter parking lots for a savings of $235 million.

Read the entire Post story here.

The parties will further discuss the new ideas later this month.