Dulles Rail Project Will Make Congestion Worse, Lawsuit Claims
By Freedom Advocates Staff
Posted December 19, 2003
Proposal “too expensive and illegally conceived”
FAIRFAX, Virginia — Noted constitutional lawyer Gilbert K. Davis filed suit on December 5th against the Commonwealth of Virginia and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to obtain an injunction prohibiting further advancement of the $4 billion Dulles rail project, which Davis contended is being moved forward in violation of the Virginia Public Private Transportation Act (PPTA) and its implementing guidelines.
Davis’ lawsuit, filed in Fairfax Circuit Court, alleges that politicians, Tysons Corner land developers and bureaucrats – particularly the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) — are self-servingly jamming the Dulles rail project down the throats of Virginia taxpayers without the necessary legal authority required by the PPTA.
“They want to suck up billions of dollars that could be going now toward relieving traffic congestion on I-95, I-66 and the Beltway and instead pour tax dollars into a scheme to build a rail line that will help about 7 percent of Northern Virginia’s commuters and take up to 25 years to complete,” Davis told reporters. “Under the Dulles rail project proposal WMATA will be paid a 30 percent project management fee and land developers in the Tyson’s Corner area will make record profits. In the meantime, taxpayers and commuters will see taxes raised, tolls tripled and no real relief from traffic congestion,” Davis said.
Davis, who successfully challenged the Clinton Administration before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Paula Jones case, and who has offices in Fairfax, said the suit hopes to convince the Fairfax Circuit Court that the Dulles rail project is “too expensive, illegally conceived and will actually make traffic congestion worse.” Davis’ suit seeks an injunction prohibiting further advancement of the rail plan, lists several Fairfax businesses and individual Fairfax County taxpayers as plaintiffs. They are LOWER Inc. (Landowners Opposing Wasteful Expenditures on Rail), Cascades East Associates Limited Partnership, Walker Management Inc., all of Reston, and Patrick S. Herrity of Clifton, VA.
Dulles Rail Project Will Make Congestion Worse, Lawsuit Claims by Freedom Advocates Staff
