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2000 SESSION

004868888
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 165
Offered January 24, 2000
Expressing the sense of the General Assembly regarding expediting development of rail transit to Dulles International Airport.
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Patrons-- Plum, Almand, Callahan, Scott and Watts; Senators: Howell and Mims
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Referred to Committee on Rules
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WHEREAS, during the past year considerable progress has been made in the Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit Project in gaining support, developing a plan, identifying funding, and moving forward in the federal new start funding process; and

WHEREAS, the corridor running from Dulles International Airport northwest into Loudoun County and east through Herndon and Reston to Tysons Corner in Fairfax County continues to experience phenomenal economic and physical growth, unlike any other concentration of growth in the Commonwealth or the Washington metropolitan area; and

WHEREAS, Dulles International Airport has experienced significant growth in airline passenger use, an increase of 25 percent in 1998 alone, and its current 20 million annual passenger count is expected to rise to 55 million in 20 years, and its current 350 metric tons of cargo to eight million metric tons; and

WHEREAS, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is planning a major new facility at Dulles International Airport to house its extraordinary collection of aircraft and spacecraft, and this new facility is projected to draw three million visitors in its first year of operation; and

WHEREAS, the opportunity is now to ensure that Tysons Corner and the Dulles Corridor become and remain a first-class global international center of retail, culture, and business and home of major corporations by providing a seamless extension of the Metrorail system between Dulles International Airport, gateway to the National Capital Region, and Washington, D.C., the capital of the free world; and

WHEREAS, the Governor of Virginia has made rail transit in the Dulles Corridor to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County a priority of his Transportation Plan; and

WHEREAS, the Dulles Corridor Task Force, appointed by the Secretary of Transportation and chaired by J. Kenneth Klinge, has moved expeditiously to develop a four-phase plan to implement rail to Tysons Corner by 2006 and to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County by 2010; and

WHEREAS, through Congressman Frank Wolf's efforts, $42 million in federal funds have been appropriated for the project in fiscal year 1999 and fiscal year 2000, in addition to the $86 million in federal funds authorized in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century; and

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth Transportation Board has authorized the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to develop a funding plan and to enter into preliminary engineering and related National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) analyses; and

WHEREAS, the Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit Project is now included in the Transportation Improvement Program and Constrained Long-Range Plan adopted by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board; and

WHEREAS, the Dulles Corridor Task Force has approved application by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to the Federal Transit Administration for funds to initiate preliminary engineering and NEPA; and

WHEREAS, the Northern Virginia Transportation Coordinating Council has adopted a Transportation Plan for 2020 that includes rail to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County by 2010; and

WHEREAS, the Dulles rail transit project is expected to generate among the highest transit riderships of any of the Metrorail lines with resulting potential reductions in local subsidies needed for operating and maintenance costs and thus will compete favorably as a state priority project; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That it is the sense of the General Assembly that the Administration and the General Assembly, working together, endorse, support, and use every effort to achieve this seamless extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County in an expedited manner to support the continued growth of the technology sector and the quality of life in Northern Virginia; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the General Assembly do all that it can to cause this project to be funded and move forward, sooner than the 2010 time table, if feasible, and with the participation of the private sector and use of private resources to enable cost savings and innovative project management and funding techniques; and, be it

RESOLVED FINALLY, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, the Director of the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, and the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation in order that they may be apprised of the sense of the General Assembly in this matter.