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House transportation head resurrects tunnel
Ever since the Dulles rail project almost died a bureaucratic death in January, most Northern Virginia lawmakers and business leaders have focused on keeping the project alive and presenting a united front of support for the current plan.
At a July 7 town hall meeting in Tysons Corner, billed as a discussion of the future of rail in Northern Virginia, a congressman from Minnesota was less careful.
“It has become evident that the DOT and the White House are enemies of transit,” said U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
In a sweeping speech in which he called Federal Transit Administration and Department of Transportation officials “the KGB” and the Office of Management and Budget “gnomes,” Oberstar outlined his support for rail in general and the Tysons tunnel in particular.
As local lawmakers in the audience visibly winced, Oberstar declared that the FTA should be forced to consider an underground rail line in Tysons, and that his committee was prepared to intervene in the beltway high-occupancy toll lanes project, which is about to start construction, if there is citizen support.
“If a citizen group comes to us asking us to intervene, we will,” Oberstar said of the HOT lanes.
Oberstar repeatedly compared U.S. and Virginia's transportation investments unfavorably to China's and said that rail projects are a more efficient use of federal dollars than road-building or the war in Iraq.
What might be political rhetoric on the lips of a local lawmaker is something else coming from one of the most powerful figures in the world of federal transportation projects. Local U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th) credited Oberstar with helping the rail project survive FTA scrutiny, and Oberstar's support for the Dulles Rail project is a powerful encouragement to rail advocates.
However, Oberstar was also effusive in his support for the Tysons tunnel, whose advocates have been viewed as an obstacle to Dulles rail ever since the FTA's threatened rejection of the project in January.
“We should have a tunnel!” said Oberstar, adding that, with political will, the FTA could be forced to consider both the aerial option and tunnel option for Dulles rail on a double track.
The transportation chairman's support could revive the tunnel advocacy group TysonsTunnel.org, which has been lacking in both funds and political allies in recent months.
“I wasn't expecting that. ... he's a leader where we have few leaders,” said Scott Monett, president of TysonsTunnel.org.
Moran, who organized the meeting, was much more measured in his response.
“You have to deal with the situation presented, you can't always get what you want,” Moran said of the aerial versus tunnel debate.
“I don't know what role [Oberstar] intends to play. ... He has always stepped forward to find good solutions for this project,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D).
Virginia and Fairfax County have both pledged support for the elevated rail through Tysons Corner, and the FTA has never been presented with the tunnel option.
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