Observer Online | Chasing Down the Buses

Edition of July 27, 2007

Chasing Down the Buses

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-10th) was at the forefront of the push over the past decade or so to bring the Dulles rail project closer to reality, and this week he continued to campaign for an inexpensive transportation solution that he first suggested for the Dulles corridor.

Wolf brought up the idea of using bus rapid transit in the Dulles corridor back in the 1990s, when federal funding for the project seemed a long way off and local and state funding was nowhere in sight. Wolf has seen the system, which uses buses designed to be like commuter trains along dedicated roadways, in use in Brazil and thought it would be a good, inexpensive solution for Northern Virginia.

Back then, I liked the idea as well. It's a lot cheaper than rail, and it accomplishes the same purpose. This week, Wolf proposed $500,000 in funding to study adding the bus system, known as BRT, in the I-66 corridor outside of the Beltway.

Having spent some years of my pre-Herndon and Reston life living along the I-66 corridor, I am willing to be there is a good deal of support for the idea of extending some sort of transit line farther out on the I-66 corridor.

As before, BRT seems like an inexpensive way of adding mass transit quickly. As I recall from the Dulles corridor discussions in the 1990s, the bus system could have been put in place for millions of dollars instead of billions—an astronomical savings that would go far in Virginia's revenue-strapped transportation planning system.

And, the bus system, which includes platform stations and other features similar to rail, could be converted to a full rail system years later when funding or ridership allows.