FTA tells DC area to go to hell...

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MKSheppard
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FTA tells DC area to go to hell...

Post by MKSheppard »

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The federal government will not fund the Metro extension to Dulles International Airport without drastic changes, officials said yesterday, effectively scuttling a $5 billion project planned for more than 40 years and widely considered crucial to the region's economic future.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Federal Transit Administration chief James S. Simpson stunned Virginia politicians at a meeting on Capitol Hill yesterday when they outlined what Simpson called "an extraordinarily large set of challenges" that disqualifies the project from receiving $900 million in federal money. Without that, the project would die.

"The sheer number and magnitude of the current project's technical, financial and institutional risks and uncertainties are unprecedented," Simpson wrote yesterday in a follow-up letter to Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). "I have serious concerns whether it would be appropriate to continue further investment."
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Kaine and U.S. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), speaking after the closed-door meeting, said they look forward to responding to the FTA's concerns. But one senior congressional official described Warner as "livid" at the meeting, and a state official who spoke to Kaine afterward described him as "extremely disappointed and frustrated."

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Great, our fucking money goes to fund trillion dollar boondoggles that is already falling apart in Taxachussets (Big Dig); but a simple, ABOVE GROUND rail line is too "technically complicated"
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Post by CmdrWilkens »

The problem, and the FTA knows it, is that the jackasses in McLean will never actually accept above ground rail and they will fight with their rather large pocket books costing millions of dollars in legal fees and, more importantly, project delays. The sheer number of tunnel proponents means that a project such as the Dulles extension was bound to get mirred in legal limbo for far too long despite the benefits which would be seen.

That said the project is sorely needed and I would hope that the tunnel jackasses would finally realize that so long as they keep clamoring we aren't getting a rail line so maybe they should shut up and accept their fate.
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