The region is reeling from a blow delivered by Federal Transit Administration (FTA) head James Simpson last week that the FTA was likely to declare the Rail to Dulles Project unfit for federal funding. An extension of Metrorail to the region’s premier, and growing, international airport, has been contemplated for more than four decades. During the last 10 years, major exploratory and design work was completed to move the project forward, and there was significant evidence that the project met all of the FTA’s New Starts evaluation criteria for federal funding.
