The Dulles Rail Fiasco

There is a lot of discussion on the Dulles Rail fiasco all over the Virginia blogosphere right now. If you are looking for a good article generally summarizing the situation and circumstances that led to our current condition, LoudounExtra did a great job today: Contradictions Surface in Dulles Rail Talks. Here's a taste.

At several points in the past two years, Federal Transit Administration officials said the project was doing fine on cost and construction management, according to the correspondence and phone calls with Virginia officials.

But Thursday, the tone changed. FTA chief James S. Simpson declared the project unfit for federal funding. And he pointed to many of the issues that project officials and Virginia politicians had thought were settled and done with. - LoudounExtra

Since we have reached a point of total boondoggle, it makes sense to revisit the entire project. Elements like dedicated funding, competitive bidding, a tunnel and better project management and control should be fundamental issues addressed in a comprehensive project review. Once that is completed, we will have a much better idea of what is involved in getting this transformative project done right. The last thing our area needs is a Big Dig.