LTE: Chamber ‘Dead Wrong’ on Metro
An opponent of the proposal to bring rail to Ashburn questions support of Loudoun business panel.
Good job Mr. Garber. Tony Howard is dead wrong with his numbers. But most of the numbers are pretty well concealed.
Mr. Garber’s capital cost number is accurate according to a conversation I had with Scott York and two other supervisors recently, but it is an estimate until final numbers come out. Not sure how the difference between 300 and 350 is 250 percent.
Thanks for bringing up WMATA numbers. This is the big nut and it has only entered the conversation thanks to some sharp people in Fairfax that are a few years further into this.
County staff had this pegged as TBD in until it was forced into the open recently. Now they are low-balling it until NVTC comes up with an estimate of Loudoun’s share. Would you trust that bunch of beltway Democrats with your blank check Mr. Howard?
Pages 17 and 18 show the Capital Needs Inventory at $13.3 BILLION. That is more than the entire original Metro system cost to build. They are holding it until Loudoun jumps in. We’re rich, remember.
As for Mr. Fuller, I’ve seen the letter promoting rail to Scott York. It is a joke and reeks of academic prostitution. He contradicts himself repeatedly and he ignores and attempts to outweigh the RCLCO study with his unsupported opinions. Mr. Fuller’s trick is to use general numbers for enhanced workforce mobility and then insert the favorite of all the pro-rail businesses and politicians you can view on his puffed up online bio.
“40,000 jobs will be created” sounds like a line out of an Obama State of the Union speech. Maybe Fuller is on commission as a writer for him also.
Buses are superior at a fraction of the cost but they cut the developers and the politicians out of the pay-off.
The Loudoun Rail legacy is a long one that brings to mind several of the classic don’ts of decision making:
- Selective Search for Evidence: Gathering facts that support pre-determined conclusions, but disregard other facts that support different conclusions.
- Inertia: Being unwilling to change old thought patterns.
- Wishful Thinking: Wanting to see things in a positive light.
- Repetition Bias: Believing what's been stated the most often and by the greatest number of sources.
- Group Think: Conforming to peer pressure or the opinions of the majority.
This is a forever decision for Loudoun. I hope they get it right by opting out.
The bottom line is that Rail To Loudoun is good for developers, a few businesses, and is a disaster for Loudoun’s homeowners, taxpayers and workforce. Those are the facts, and to use Mr. Howard’s own words, “I cannot fathom why a Loudoun supervisor would support this type of discriminatory treatment against Virginia's contractors and construction workers.”
Opt out, pay nothing, let it come to Dulles, let Tony Howard and his business buddies build it if is so darn good.
David LaRock
Hamilton Virginia
Tony Howard
3:06 pm on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
I hesitated to respond to Mr. LaRock and his rather strange and largely unbalanced rant against Beltway Democrats, academic prostitution, businesses and developers.
Honestly, it is hard not to have sympathy for such a troubled mind, but I did want to offer him the benefit of one clarification: my statement against "discriminatory treatment against Virginia's contractors and construction workers" was made last summer in opposition to the use of mandatory Project Labor Agreements as previously mandated by the Washington Airports Authority Board.
Building the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project in the most cost effective manner, to protect the interests of Loudoun's business and residential taxpayers, is vitally important and I stand by that statement. But that statement and the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce's opposition to the use of government mandated PLAs exists soley to support the timley and cost-efficient completion of Phase 2 of the Dulles Rail Project.
So while I doubt that he can comprehend this, Mr. LaRock's use of my statement effectively undermines his already weak and easily refuted arguments against this project.
Tony Howard
David A. LaRock
10:47 pm on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sounds like doubletalk Tony. Would that mean you are for exporting jobs bought and paid for by Virginians, or not? YES....NO check one please.
PS I am a businesseman, the kind that does work and generates a product, I like developers who do likewise, and earn their money the old fashion way, without picking the publics pockets.
Rob Jones
9:52 am on Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Mr. Howard's condescending tone in this reply is odious. It speaks more towards Mr. Howard's attempt to derail a meaningful dialogue that isn't going his way. It's not Mr. LaRock's mind that is troubled - what's troubled is the process of presenting a clear, factual and unbiased view of the the cost of the Dulles Rail Project and it's true impact on the citizens of Loudoun County. The center of the argument is in fact whether or not "the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project in the most cost effective manner, to protect the interests of Loudoun's business and residential taxpayers", as stated above. The attempt to deflect the conversation into a debate over labor relations is a dead end. Yet, this does not elicit an armchair analysis of Mr. Howard's state of mind nor his ability to comprehend the complexity of the issues at hand. The reports that I have read all seem to have a lot of opinion masquerading as fact. This is normal. No one can predict with total certainty what the numbers will be in the long run, but there is such a thing as reviewing a contract before signing, and if opting in contractually obligates us as county, state and federal taxpayers to bail the project out of a crap deal, I say we shift the risk burden onto the developers and businesses that expect to profit from Dulles Rail and let them pay for it. If there's money to be made, let them make it.
Is that so unbalanced?
Bob Bruhns
12:57 pm on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
I'm not sure how Dulles Rail Phase II can be considered to be cost effective, or to be protecting the interests of Loudoun's business and residential taxpayers, when it costs about two times what it should cost to begin with - and then BECAUSE it costs two times what it should, it is necessary to borrow more money, so additional finance costs are added to it.
Dulles Rail, at $286 million a mile, costs two times what the 1997 Franconia-Springfield Metro extension cost, in 2012 dollars. Why is OUR Metro extension cost 100% high?
The Dulles Rail Phase II Rt 28 station, at $83 million, costs two times what a comparable Metro station recently cost in posh Fairfield, Connecticut. Why should OUR station construction costs be 100% high?
The Dulles Rail Phase II parking garages cost $26,394 per space, per the US FTA. That cost is simply off the scale in North America! The closest parking garage cost is New York City at $20,226 per space, but in Baltimore, the cost is a little under $15,000 per space. Why should OUR parking garage construction costs be 70% high?