Heavy rail like the Washington METRO is a wonderful thing… as long as it can pay its own way. As I argue in today’s e-zine column, “Rail Rip-off,” the extension of METRO rail to Dulles Airport could catalyze billions of dollars of redevelopment in Tysons Corner, transforming Virginia’s leading business center into a much more livable, workable community. Rail to Dulles is much to be desired.
My problem with the project is the financing mechanism the state has cobbled together to pay for it. The financing scheme and zoning plan (as currently articulated) sticks Joe Blow commuters along the Dulles Toll Road with $1 billion in tolls while it lavishes the benefits of higher densities and METRO access upon select landowners in Tysons Corner and along the Dulles Corridor.
This financing package represents an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the poor (or middle class) to the super rich. How this could take place under a Democratic Party administration is a mystery to me. Where are all the populists who stand up for the little guy? For that matter, how can Republicans, who supposedly recoil from the corporate welfare state, remain silent?
Enough wealth would be created by a METRO line and increased density around the rail stations that property owners — the primary beneficiaries — are perfectly capable of footing the cost. There is no need to bilk highway commuters. Conceptually, the financing solution is fairly simple, as I explain in my column. The devil is in the details, I’ll concede. But there should be enough wealth created to negotiate a win-win scenario for everyone.
