Proposal To Change Dulles Metro Project Announced On Wednesday
STERLING, Va. (WUSA) -- After decades of discussions and negotiations, complications and compromises, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority finally approved a three-billion dollar plan last year to put a Metro station at Dulles Airport.
Since then, everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly, until Wednesday, when Aiports Authority board member Robert Brown suggested what he calls a much less expensive alternative to building a Metro stop actually at Dulles.
According to Brown, it would save about 70 million dollars to abandon plans to build a Metro stop near the airport's north garage, about a quarter mle away from the terminal, but instead to have passengers who are going to Dulles get off at the nearby Route 28 Metro stop and be taken by a people mover system the final two minutes or so directly to the terminal.
Brown said even though it took a long time to arrive at a plan for the Dulles Metro station, the Airports Authority board should still consider proposals, like his, that would save a lot of money without pushing back the project's completion. Having said that, Brown is well aware that he'll be fighting an uphill battle.
Indeed, the Airports Authority board says, despite Brown's proposal, it is going forward with the exact plan that was approved last year.