Last updated: March 1, 11 a.m.
Dulles Rail, Phase 2 and Silver Line station name comments received via the online comment form:
| # | Date | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 03/02/2012 | City: Herndon Comment: My only comment about this project is that the station near the Herndon Monroe parking structure be called HERNDON. Herndon is where the stop is located. It is a real town - not a subdivision or special tax district. Reston has two stops that have the word reston and part of the probable station name - a third reston name is not needed 0 and it may confuse visitors. The Vienna station is named Vienna - not Fair Oaks, not Fairfax, - Herndon is the location of the stop - |
| 2 | 03/05/2012 | City: Fairfax Comment: Please finish this Phase 2 ASAP. Thanks to the Great work !!! |
| 3 | 03/10/2012 | City: Herndon Comment: I just got done taking the survey about the station names and I felt I had to comment. I moved here twelve years ago, and only occasionally take the train, but to this day, each time I go to take the metro, I have to look up whether I want the East Falls Church or the West Falls Church station. These names may be extremely descriptive of the stations' locations, but they do not help me, the rider, in the least. It is too easy to make a mistake. I was appalled to see that three stations prospectively have Tysons in their names, and that two have Reston and two have Dulles. Please make the names entirely unique so there is no question where a rider will be getting off or on. I think it is less important to be geographically and/or politically accurate than to have distinctive names. This is especially true since the line will be going to Dulles Airport and there may be many occasional riders like me. FCDOT staff response: Thank you for your interest in the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project and for commenting on the proposed Silver Line station names. Staff from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the agency operating Metro, indicated to staff from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) that Silver Line station names previously recommended in 2011 were confusing to riders and non-riders alike. Through research, WMATA staff found that part of the confusion was related to the repeated use of “Tysons,” “Reston,” and “Herndon” in the proposed station names. Comments also indicated a concern with the name "Dulles" being part of another station name outside of the Dulles International Airport. FCDOT staff are working with the public and project stakeholders now to recommended station names that meets WMATAs station naming policy principles to ensure names are relevant, brief, unique, and evocative. The timeline for the station naming process is to continue public discussion at four Dulles Rail public meetings scheduled for the evenings of March 12, 14, 15, and 19, and conclude the online survey the evening of March 21. From there, FCDOT staff will develop a report recommending names to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. We plan to provide recommendations to the Board of Supervisors’ at the April 10 Board meeting. Station names endorsed by the county Board will be forwarded to WMATA. The WMATA Board of Directors is scheduled to act in May 2012 on adopting the station names based on Fairfax County’s recommendations. Thank you again for your input. Regards, Nick Perfili Dulles Corridor Metrorail/BRAC Division Fairfax County Department of Transportation |
| 4 | 03/15/2012 | City: Herndon Comment: I'm a bit new to this, but based on what I know it seems that WMAA is getting an awful lot and being asked for precious little. Given MWAA's role as project manager for the project, the incentive structure for this project is so badly skewed toward getting rail to Dulles Airport (at any cost) that is incumbent upon the County and other stakeholders to hold MWAA's feet to the fire every inch of the way. First of all, it is patently ridiculous that toll road users should pay for any part of the airport metro station on airport property. Airport infrastructure should be paid by the airport or by other means, not through tolls. You can make an argument for tolls paying for rail and stations along the way but not at the airport. According to research done by Bob B. and some quick research I have done, it appears that the costs of the Phase II rail line are grossly inflated. The County's response to this seems to be that it is a reasonable cost based on the cost of Phase I. Well maybe we paid too much for Phase I? I'm fairly certain that if you give a large road contractor $10 million to build a $5 million road, he's going to show quite effectively how he spent every last nickel. You are asking the wrong question. You should be asking why a rail project with relatively few engineering challenges with an existing right of way would be one of the most expensive rail lines in the country on a per mile basis. We would like an answer. If we are giving over the toll road to WMAA (I realize it's not actually Fairfax County's but we are the most impacted positively and negatively by the toll road) let's at least ask for some reasonable improvements in return. For example: -there is a four lane highway in the middle of the toll road that is grossly underutilized. How about WMAA gives up some of that capacity, for example as an express lane from Rt. 66 to around Herndon/Rt. 28. -why can't we have a toll system that resembles modern best practice? How about paying at the exit for the actual distance traveled. With EZpass this is a fairly simply fix. A fair pricing system will reduce the impact of rising tolls so that a trip from say, Herndon to Reston, doesn't cost $1.50, forcing people onto local roads. FCDOT staff response: The formula that pays for the Dulles Metrorail Project has already been agreed upon by the funding partners. We are working to minimize the impacts to the toll road users and some of that relief could come from other sources like the State funding that was agreed upon in the Project Memorandum of Agreement. The cost estimate has been reviewed by the Federal Transit Administration, the independent cost estimator - MBP, and PE Engineering firm. The cost estimates have all been within the same range from three different sources. It is difficult to compare this system with others in the country without understanding each rail system has different design standards, safety and system requirements, and operational needs. The design had to comply with MWATA design standards since they will own and operate the system once it has been completed. We will make MWAA aware of your suggestions related to the current toll system. |