Random Silver Line Metro Proposal Not Nearly as Crazy as the Reason Reston is Losing Most of Its Bus Service

Here, courtesy of the Googles Maps and this site, is a modest proposal: rerouting the Metro Silver Line from the median of the Toll Road to the old W&OD line, which would run the Metro through the actual existing urban cores of Reston and Herndon -- our beloved Fake Downtown, Herndon's slightly less fake downtown, and the Clocktower shopping center, which has a variety of international eateries under a faux Swiss chalet roof. A perfect spot for a Metro station!

Of course, this would never work, given the land-rights issues and the irate runners and cyclists who would find it hard to ride or run on their favorite trail without hitting the 900-volt third rail, plus the fact that we can't even afford to put a tunnel through Tysons Corner, an area with much higher present -- and planned -- density. But it's still a heck of a lot less crazy than this: the reason why Reston is likely to lose a good chunk of its bus service. Apparently the airport authority wants to use the money instead to build a "mini-Beltway" through the fertile particleboard McMansions of Loudoun County to create a loop around the airport! No, really:

Late last year, the county discovered, from materials that the Airports Authority provided to the public to solicit comments on proposed toll increases, that the agency planned to spend toll revenues instead on improvements to Route 606 in Loudoun County, according to a sharp-toned letter the Board of Supervisors sent to MWAA on Sept. 14 of last year.

Route 606, the Loudoun portion of which is called Old Ox Road, along with routes 50 and 28, is under consideration for creating a mini-beltway, or "Dulles Loop," around the airport. Routes 606 and 50 are considered inadequate in this capacity, although some state funding has been approved for the Route 50 segment.

The Board of Supervisors pointed out in its Sept. 14 letter that it had contributed $50,000 to planning for the Dulles Loop in 2007 on the condition that Dulles Toll Road revenue not be used to fund the project, and the board also argued that Route 606 was outside the Dulles Corridor, where toll revenue is to be spent.

In an Oct. 19 letter, however, the Airports Authority contended that its permit and operating agreement with the state defined the Dulles Corridor as extending to Ryan Road, west of the Loudoun County Parkway, which would authorize the agency to spend toll road revenue farther west than the last stop on the planned Silver Line.

The Connector bus grant has helped to pay for routes 552, 553, 554 and 557, which collect riders from Reston neighborhoods and take them to the West Falls Church Metro Station, as well as routes 929, 951 and 952, which are "reverse-commuter" routes, serving people who work in Reston and live elsewhere.

Yeah, that makes sense.