Metro News Release

For immediate release: December 20, 2005

Statement from Metro on Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority proposal to operate Dulles Toll Road and construct rail to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County

Earlier today the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) announced its proposal to operate the Dulles Toll Road and oversee the construction of a rail line through the Dulles Corridor to Fairfax and Loudoun counties. Below is a statement from Metro General Manager and CEO Richard A. White on the proposal.

"The Airports Authority clearly recognizes the importance of the rail-to-Dulles project to the airport itself and to the region as a whole. How the Dulles project should be managed and operated is a decision the leadership in the Commonwealth of Virginia must make, since Virginia remains the sponsor of the rail-to-Dulles project. Regardless of the outcome of those decisions, we expect that Metro would continue as the ’technical manager’ of the project, to help ensure that the extension is built in a way that is seamless and generally consistent with the rest of the Metrorail system.

"People use us every day to get to Ronald Reagan National Airport. An average of 11,885 people a weekday take Metrorail to and from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Airport’s statistics show that almost 18 percent of passengers going to the airport use the Metrorail system, the highest transit use of any airport in the country. There is no doubt that an urban area airport’s access to public transportation is an essential link."

News release issued on December 20, 2005.