Rejoice my Loudoun Brethren (Arlington, Reston: transfer, tax, live)

[tysonsengineer]

The argument that has split FFX and Loudoun appears to be finally coming to an end. Loudoun has officially approved the Rail and funding for Silver Line. I finally feel like both of our counties are moving in the right direction towards sharing economic prosperity and am glad at the end of the day the shouts of the few didnt stop the benefits for the many. I know it doesnt seem like it will help traffic, but removing 30,000 to what I believe will be more like 50,000 drivers off of the toll road and Route 7 is going to help East/west movement and people who can't use the metro. Having this metro will mean better bus options also for loudoun residents, instead of travelling all the way down the DTR they can increase the number of buses on short hauls to go to the metro instead.

In all I think today is a good day for everyone except the Pohanka family and those who believe that 270 million is too expensive (but support far more costly road projects).

[cdmurphy]

They haven't taken the final vote yet... just the finance vote.

[tysonsengineer]

Formality, they are completing it now, financing was the only hurdle left and it passed 7-2, though interestingly, based on the comments right now in debate the rail will only pass 5-4 likely.

Volpe looks like she might be the deciding one

[spencgr]

Can you explain the rationale for the 50,000 number? My logic may certainly be flawed, but wouldn't the reduced number of drivers on the Toll Road be the same number of parking spaces at the new stations? I have heard (this information may be incorrect) that there are very few parking spaces in these stations. If I can't park there, I really have no other option but to continue to drive the DTR, correct? (I do realize there are likely many options of various transportation routes, but any that involves, cars, busses, and trains would exremely lengthen my commute; thus not an option).

[stpickrell]

Reid is astute enough to notice he's in the most liberal part of the County, where the Leesburg TC voted 5-2 to support Metro.

Clarke, on the other hand, doesn't seem to fully realize Brambleton will be a much bigger part of her constituency than it was last year.

PS: I was right, someone did suggest a referendum. It was Delgaudio. I figured someone would suggest it earlier and the "Opt Out" crowd would morph into "Referendum Now." OTOH, I suspect they knew deep down a Metro referendum would pass 2-to-1.

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by spencgr

Can you explain the rationale for the 50,000 number? My logic may certainly be flawed, but wouldn't the reduced number of drivers on the Toll Road be the same number of parking spaces at the new stations? I have heard (this information may be incorrect) that there are very few parking spaces in these stations. If I can't park there, I really have no other option but to continue to drive the DTR, correct? (I do realize there are likely many options of various transportation routes, but any that involves, cars, busses, and trains would exremely lengthen my commute; thus not an option).

Not everyone drives to metro stations. In fact 25% on commuter stations are from bus transfers (see West FC where its often faster to go by bus than drive because of the toll road access). Add in that 70,000 people live within biking distance (2 miles) of this project along DTR and that is why the ridership will be higher than the 25,000 parking spaces being provided (along Sunrise in Herndon another 6000 spaces are anticipated from private garages/road way away from the station).

It takes me 8 minutes to drive to West Falls Church right now and park (for 4.50) from my location in Tysons. It takes me 3 minutes by bus and essentially costs 1 dollar because my transfer price is reduced when you go from bus to rail.

PS its finally official 5-4!

[stpickrell]

and now we'll see if the Tag Piggies will try and stall stall stall this project.

Reid probably got a number of letters from residents in his district (I was one of them), and realized he's either going to face a possible Teabagging in a convention or a near-certain defeat in the fall. That, and it seems the tax district provided him the cover he needed. Shame on the previous boards for not setting this up, however.

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

and now we'll see if the Tag Piggies will try and stall stall stall this project.

Reid probably got a number of letters from residents in his district (I was one of them), and realized he's either going to face a possible Teabagging in a convention or a near-certain defeat in the fall. That, and it seems the tax district provided him the cover he needed. Shame on the previous boards for not setting this up, however.

Not sure if Tax Pig can do anything about it. The financing is set up, and the vote basically is an agreement that the funds will be provided to MWAA for this portion of the project, and WMATA for the operational assistance once Silver Line is running. This will streamline the project because no design changes to the preliminary plan will need to be made (to include a rail yard near Dulles and to end and loop the system at the airport yada yada). I think we can anticipate operations to be as expected around 2018-2019.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

Not everyone drives to metro stations. In fact 25% on commuter stations are from bus transfers (see West FC where its often faster to go by bus than drive because of the toll road access). Add in that 70,000 people live within biking distance (2 miles) of this project along DTR and that is why the ridership will be higher than the 25,000 parking spaces being provided (along Sunrise in Herndon another 6000 spaces are anticipated from private garages/road way away from the station).

It takes me 8 minutes to drive to West Falls Church right now and park (for 4.50) from my location in Tysons. It takes me 3 minutes by bus and essentially costs 1 dollar because my transfer price is reduced when you go from bus to rail.

PS its finally official 5-4!

Loudoun bus lines are not as abundant as eastern Fairfax. Most people would have to drive to a bus stop. And maybe I'm just being cynical, but I don't see 70K people biking to the metro. Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-metro (although i do have some gripes about the funding); but i don't see it taking that many cars off of the DTR daily.

[tysonsengineer]

Well, this is a multi decade process. The buses arent as much as fairfax because of how far they would have to go to the metro stations. Its all a branch like rivers or a tree. You increase the trunk and it spreads out the smaller ones. I am sure Ashburn, Brambleton and Leesburg will all get better bus service with this now being within a 5 mile radius, especially since in many cases the buses can attain high speeds like a BRT along the toll road.

70,000 wont have to bike for 50,000 riders per day (east direction btw, in the west there will likely be another 15000 from Arlington to Reston/Herndon/Tysons).

If each station (including 1 of the Tysons, Wielhe, Reston, Herndon, Innovation, and the 2 Loudoun) attains about 5000 bus rider transfers (which is low compared to Vienna, WFC and EFC but good conservative estimate) that is 35,000 riders. Now alot of that is existing bus riders (about 20,000 currently in those regions are already bus riders down DTR). So thats 15,000 people off the roads conservatively.

Add in the 25,000 parking spaces, and thats 40,000 total users without including any bike/walkers

Add in 10,000 people who can get to metro now without bus at all (1/7th of those 70,000). And I think that 50,000 is fairly accurate. Far more than saying that JUST car drivers will use metro.