Rail systems are nice, but there are absolutely no bathrooms, no eating allowed of course. The private bus lines often have bathrooms. I don’t know if the one for Loundon Commuter line Bus system that goes into town have bathrooms. But this would be my option if coming from Leesburg. Also, Leesburg is such a nice town, I would not invite public transportation down that way, because that would more encourage section 8’s to go there. Once that happens, the town will turn into a dump. Though I don’t live in Leesburg or in Ashland, I think these towns should remain preserved.

Employers need to stop importing workers from other states. How often does your boss complain about traffic and then go and hire someone from Iowa or Montana or Pennsylvania? You dig your own hole.

SprawlFighter

You miss the whole point; jobs move but people cannot move so easy right now.

No city in the world is local only and lacks transportation projects for the public you are being incredibly short sited and unrealistic.

Also read again I did not have $700k for a home which is why I live out here and not in Arlington. Also no $2k apartment is going to hold a real family in these days. I am guessing you are single and have no idea what it cost to have a home a family can live in close to the city or in it.

For the record my Wife and I work in Dulles and live in lower Ashburn on the Dulles side, just pointing out how unrealistic your “move” option is especially in this current housing and job market.

Shawn -  Let the rail come, but leave the last stop at Dulles Airport. As for RT.7, that is infrastructure for intra-county use. Speed and ease between Sterling, Ashburn, Leesburg, and Purcellville.

We don’t need a 2 station extension from Dulles Airport. Anybody in Loudoun who wants to ride the rails can go park in Dulles and catch the train there.

@Sprawl Fighter: I notice you were advocating interchanges on Route 7—aren’t those infrastructure improvements? Why are road improvements (which pretty much help commuters from Leesburg and points west) getting preference over rail that will permit denser (i.e. with more local jobs and more tax revenue) development?

Becuase if Loudoun/Moorefield Stations can’t be transit-oriented development, they’ll be ... more Ashburn. Is that what you want?

People move to Loudoun County because of the cheaper homes.  Then too many of these people move in and start clamoring for all the amenities of the closer in communities they fled, like Metro, which will only serve a tiny portion of them.  So taxes go up and everything becomes just as expensive as the closer in communities.  Nice deal.

Shawn -  Then move to Tysons. You are going to pay one way or the other. Either in housing costs in a densely populated area close to work. Or you’ll pay in transportation time and costs commuting to work to save on housing costs.  But it is a choice. Nobody is forcing you to live in Loudoun and Commute to Tysons. You are just deciding that you rather get cheaper housing and pay more for fuel and have less time in your life while you sit in traffic.

FedUpDude—  Just because you made the choice not to sink $700k into a home doesn’t mean we all should foot the bill for infrastructure that benefits your choice. Go live in an apartment in the city for $2000/mo. That is cheaper than a mortgage on a $700k home.

This is the heart at what I’m getting at. Everything is a choice. If you choose not to pour money into housing closer to the city, then you are opting for higher transportation costs and time spent in traffic as a result. But that is the choice you made in moving to Loudoun. 

It is arrogant for you to rally for infrastructure builds in which the rest of us have to fund via our property taxes so that your choice to live 40 miles from work can be made easier. And yes, 4/million people living an working within the inner loop is possible, although the population of this region doesn’t work inside the beltway. Area roads couldn’t handle 4/million commuters per day. Don’t confuse the region’s population with the “workforce” population.

@Sprawl Fighter: Southeast DC to Tysons ends up being as far as Leesburg to Tysons. WB 66 in the morning is no picnic until you get past Glebe Road. There’s also not that many jobs in Prince George’s and Southeast DC. But nice try.

@Opt Out: You can’t say the Silver Line will be useless and then complain it’ll be overcrowded. Folks from Loudoun will be getting off at Reston and Tysons just as much as downtown, if not more. The idea seems to be to make Tysons the second city of the DMV region and this connects Loudoun County to the rest of the region in a way that BRT simply cannot do.

@Cindy: I used to work near 25th and M. I can concur with your observation on the bus rider population, at least for the ones I took from Barrett Elementary to get on the Metro. The 38B (DC to Ballston) and 16 (Columbia Pike) buses were a pretty diverse group of riders, although the Whites mostly got off east of South Courthouse Road.

@Glenn Frey: You do realize Moorefield Station is going to get built either way, right? Either we put up transit-oriented (and denser) development or we put up several hundred single family homes on 1/4 acre lots, several hundred townhouses, and a strip mall. But you know, it’s perfectly fine to make Toll Brothers put some skin in the game if they’re not already. Figure out the difference between their profit from “typical Loudoun subdivision” and “Metro line development” and split it. Or make them underwrite the Waxpool/LCP interchange.

Winners from Rail

And it is not Loudoun

http://washingtonexaminer.com/node/369616

SprawlFighter

A handful? Something like 40% of the workers in Loudoun commute in.

Also like it or not our main source of high paying jobs in the area are tied to the federal government in Washington DC directly or indirectly. I am a tech worker and so are many of my Ashburn neighbors and we all work on government sites even if we are working on the tech corridor. Many other neighbors are government, military pentagon workers, secret service, ect; who live out here for the more affordable homes and better quality of life. Before the recession living in Alrlington reuired you to take a large moretage and have loads of money out of another house because they were so expensive; even today a small home close to DC is $700k.

Welcome to the real world; 4 million people in NoVA work in DC or within the inner loop and they are not all going to fit there. Manassas didn’t fix its road issues and look at the mess it is there.

Cindy - You contradict yourself in your “argument”.  People are too stuck up to ride the bus, yet they ride the bus to DC on the Commuter, and no one rides it “in town”.  So the problem is no one takes the Leesburg trolley?  How is Metro solving that?

If “in town” refers to Metro buses, why is it a Loudoun taxpayer’s concern as to how many people ride Metro bus?  We should be concerned with how our residents get to and from their destination.  If a commuter bus line will take me from Leesburg to the Reagan Building, then mission accomplished right?  Why are we spending more than we have to?

I mean if some of the Metro supporters want to start cutting checks to pay for a station that allows Toll Brothers greater profit at Moorefield Station, then please, get to writing those checks.  I underwrite this thing enough with my taxes and daily toll payment, so I frankly don’t care about Toll Brothers wanting a station over there.  Maybe they should be paying for it?

Cindy - Why do we need $500 million dollars worth of rail to Ashburn from Dulles, when people can just commute down the Greenway or RT.28 to Dulles, park, and take the train?

It just seems ridiculous to spend half a billion dollars just so people can catch the train 8 miles away in Ashburn. 8/miles folks. Are you telling me people can’t drive 8/miles and park at Dulles to catch the Silver Line? 

Lets put that $500/million into our schools, interchanges on RT.7, and other much more important things than a rail line extension from Dulles.

Metro is the way to go.  Loudoun County residents are much too stuck up for mass transportation via the bus.  Yes, many ride the commuter buses each morning into Arlington & DC, but I highly doubt even 10 of those have ever taken a bus in town before.  The bus system in place now is basically just used by teens and illegals.

Bus is the way to go, and this is coming form someone who commutes 85 miles round trip right now by car.  I’m also usually a proponent of rail, but they are getting this one all wrong.

Time: The Silver Line will be absolutely useless for anyone heading into DC or Arlington.  You will stop everywhere in between.  Can you imagine how long it will take to go from Dulles to Rosslyn?  Good luck if you have to switch lines to head to the Pentagon or anywhere else.  Don’t forget, they are adding trains, but no capacity down the line.  Trips will get longer on the existing Orange Line from that fact alone.

Cost:  The cost to ride from Vienna to L’Enfant right now is $5 each way.  Plus parking.  Keep that fare in mind and now stretch the trip from Vienna to Dulles or even Ashburn.  I’m thinking at least $10 each way, plus parking.

Comfort:  Ever look at one of the Orange Line trains in the morning running next to 66?  It is packed.  Now imagine having it running from Ashburn to Rosslyn picking people up the whole way.  Like a can of sardines. 

Meanwhile, right now you can take the Loudoun Commuter bus into the city to the major employment areas.  Leesburg to the Pentagon is $16 a day with free parking.  You get a seat and a bit of breathing room on the motor coach.  I don’t currently use it, but it would be my first choice for mass transit…not Metro. 

If they were doing this “right”.  You would have an express train from Dulles to Rosslyn.  Maybe one stop in Reston and one in Tysons.  That is it.  That is how commuter trains around NYC work.  You go from Rockland County to Manhattan.  You don’t stop in every single town on the way.

Expand the solution you already have.  Save the taxpayers money.  Don’t tie our tax base to MWAA’s whims and no-bid contracts with companies like “Big Dig” Betchel.

Lots of good ideas but can someone tell me who is going to pay the extra 150 million because of Kawaskis bad delivery schedule. Please do not tell me because of a tsunami we have to pay a company more for railcars!

FedUp “Why is it so many other cities “
—
—

Last I checked, Loudoun isn’t a city. As a result, we don’t have city like infrastructure. So that means, people who require that level of service need to relocate where those services already exist.

Just because the “handful” of people got screwed in the recession, doesn’t mean we all should pay so they can get to work 50 miles away. We need to be realistic about the best use of our tax dollar and cater to the majority who will end up having to pay for those dollars.

If you want rail lines, put up a for sale sign and find a new home along an existing rail line. Don’t make me pay higher property taxes because of your lifestyle choices. There is plenty of Affordable Housing in Southeast DC, you don’t need to live in Loudoun County and commute 40-50 miles to DC.

Sprawl fighter that is just an asinine comment. Many people’s jobs changed in the recession and their homes became impossible to sell so they have to commute to where work is.

Why is it so many other cities have figured out how to transport people and we still think only about cars?

@Shawn -  That is life. Workers should find housing near their place of employment. Building out infrastructure to support a lifestyle “choice” to commute should not be burden places on those who responsibly found work and housing within a reasonable distance to one another.  Folks who live in Loudoun and commute 40 miles to WashingtonDC deserve to sit in traffic. And they shouldn’t demand that I fork over $500 million in tax dollars so they can catch the Silver Line to work traffic free. Instead, they ought to find a new home. And if their job changes all the time, they should better choose whom they accept a job from and seek out stability. There choices should not be worked into my tax payments.

@SprawlFighter: I live and work in the Town of Leesburg. Unlike you, I realize some people will want/have to commute further in, unless you think you should move every single time you change jobs (and some job changes are less than voluntary, as I’m sure you know.)

$500/million for (2) Metro Stations is a waste, when people can just drive to Dulles Airport and jump on the train there. I mean they already have to drive to the Ashburn and Old Ox Road stations. Why not put some cash into expanding the parking lot for the Dulles station and put the rest of those millions into interchanges along Route 7? Which is more important to Loudoun than (2) rail links up the Greenway.

@Shawn - Unlike you, I was smart and found a job in Loudoun and move to a home near my job. So my commute is intra-county and its only a few miles. Maybe those who decide on a place to live should also factor in where they work instead of demanding infrastructure be built to support their lifestyle choices.

@Skeptical Observer: I’m assuming the buildout of western PWC, Loudoun, and western Fairfax since the 1970s had nothing to do with increased traffic on I-66. Why don’t we just tear up the Metro lines and see how that improves traffic?

@Sprawl Fighter: So how far is YOUR commute?

Skeptical Observer

The population has tripled in the DC area since metro came to Vienna that is why traffic has gotten worse on 66. Jobs are here and people are going to come here, we can either upgrade roads or transportation or suffer more delays than we already have. Sprawl is going to happen there is no stopping it at this point we need to however improve infrastructure.

To that end it would be short sited, or just kicking the can down the road to not follow through with the metro expansion.

Bring metro to Leesburg!!!!

Build the rail system. Anything else would just be plain dumb.

Rails or Roads, they all have the same effect. They enable sprawl, because it allows masses of people to relocate to once rural regions. Sprawl follows Roads and Rail. Wherever you built it, they will migrate too, demand housing, pump out children who need multimillion dollar schools, police and fire services, and whom’s impact will not be covered by the taxes they pay. Which means all of us will have to foot the bill. The cost burden will far exceed the benefit of the rail line.

If people who are demanding rail for the reason of reducing traffic, they need to consider relocating close to their jobs, rather than demand costly infrastructure so they can get to work faster.

Yeah, Metro to Vienna really helped with traffic. Rt66 got totally crazy after Metro was put in.  If you build it they will come, and come, and come, and citizens of Loudoun will pay, and pay, and pay.

@modernize—  No. We don’t need rail and bus. If you don’t like having rail and bus in Loudoun, THEN DON’T MOVE HERE..  Go live in Fairfax if you need those services.

Sounds like Scott York has his head up his butt again.  What ever happened to a Board of Supervisors that makes decisions by open meetings and actually making motions?  Now Scott York has taken it upon himself to run everything in the County.  Where is the record of the Board asking for this study to be done?  I don’t trust him for a minute.  This proves how bad he really is.  He’s destroying Loudoun County.

Over time—we will probably need BOTH options. We have a serious lack of public transportation. Period. We need rail & bus and adequate parking for both. And…we cannot keep “bad” people away. That is not a valid argument. This is needed for the future of the WHOLE community.

Rail did not kill Springfield.  A multi-year long gigantic highway spaghetti project killed Springfield.  Development around rail to support Fort Belvoir is the economic future of Springfield.

Kill rail to Loudoun and all Broadlands, Brambleton, Loudoun Valley Estates, etc, will have to get out is Waxpool and the Greenway, and you can kiss goodbye to economic development west of Route 28.  Brilliant.

Now we’re getting classy!

don’t you people realize that poor people are too poor to travel anywhere? that is why poor people typically get stuck in the ghetto. then when some harvard fool decides to build a rail line from the ghetto to the burbs, guess who discovers a cheap way of reaching opportunity that was previously unavailable? rail lines just won’t be taking the affluent to work in fairfax and dc. it will also be transporting the hood rats to the doorsteps of the affluent.

Rail via 28 @ certainly did happen at the Springfield mall including murders that mall became extremely dangerous when metro got there.

Express buses only work for those who work right around the various bus stops and for those who happen to be working in the hours when there’s bus service. Otherwise you have to bus to a Metro station and are then subject to the same **** as the Metro-bashers complain about. As JJ said, the buses begin to fail the moment you’re asked to work late. (I guess the bus users here are all straight up 8-5 government desk jockeys.) I also remember trying the 38B bus from Pennsylvania/25/L to Ballston for a while—it was always always always late because it was stuck on the same roads as everyone else.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure folks in Fairfax complained about how Metro wasn’t needed in Vienna. Think about that for a while.

@MoMoney: Do you have the *slightest* bit of proof for your assertions? Why the fark would they come to Loudoun when there’s NW DC, North Arlington, Falls Church, and Tysons all closer to home? (Never mind your assertion that crackheads are all thinking, “Hey Jamal/Jose/Jethro, perhaps we need to be committing our mayhem in the wealthier areas of our region, like Ashburn.”)

@No Thanks: Can you name a SINGLE neighborhood in Virginia that has turned into a ghetto post-Metro? Vienna? Arlington’s Orange/Blue corridors?

@Leej: How do the current bus users get to their bus stations? Teleportation?

While each bus may be cheaper to maintain than each rail car, you forget that 6 rail cars only need one driver, as opposed to 6 buses needing 6 drivers. (Well 1.2 and 7, since there’s sick leave, turnover, etc., etc., but you get the point.) Plus, there’s more mechanics needed to work on the more buses that’d be needed.

Redesign the metro to go from Dulles to Sterling to Dulles Town Center. That way the hoodlums can rob the illegals in Sterling and the tourist can drop their wallets and shop at the mall.

I pay $300 a month in tolls by taking the Greenway and Dulles Toll Road and have been doing so for 3 and 1/2 years. I would hope that some of that money would help bring the Metro to Loudoun County. I took the Loudoun County commuter buses for nearly two years, and still do on occasion, but the buses are always packed, frequently are late, and if I have to work late, I have no way home. I live in Leesburg and work in Alexandria. A subway ride would be the eaiest commute. Please get the metro out to us.

@Leej

No idea.  The 6am bus in Hamilton to go downtown is the only one I have experience with.  It doesn’t stop anywhere else until it hits Rosslyn. 

If it has to hit the Leesburg/Dulles North/CFC/Dulles South transfer points, you are looking at hour and a half easy ( I think.  No direct experience)

This is my main concern about the Silver Line: the transfer points and pick-up points. 

IF we can get an express bus to the silver line (I still don’t know how Wiehle Avenue will support being a terminus with the traffic situation at that location in Reston) from Hamilton and then Leesburg, it might be ok.

Until I see/try it, I am skeptical that the metro will be a net benefit to those of us that go the long haul.

Fenriswolfkpc@ I wonder how long it would take to get to the Ashburn at the toll road and ashburn village drive. Because that is where this express bus takes off to go to downtown where this guy goes.

I heard just from the ashburn station to somewhere downtown will be at hour and a half. Don’t remember where I read that it was awhile back.

40 minutes from Loudoun is optimistic.  I do live farther West and pick up the express bus from Hamilton and it takes me about 65 minutes to get to my stop at the Reagan building.

Personally, I would prefer more buses as I will be taking the long haul bus from Hamilton somewhere and it might as well be downtown.  I don’t relish the thought of transferring to the Silver Line in Ashburn.  Probably add 30 minutes to the commute.

Vote for anyone other than a Democrat@

http://www.brambletonian.net/forums/topic/19629-rise-of-the-silver-liners/

And look at someone who takes the bus on this blog
from brambleton #10 on the silverliner thread.

James Watts@ I agree with you

Fairfax county will maintain their premier status while Loudoun will be forgotten. If you want to live in the sticks and have no mass transit move to WV. What criteria do you think these large companies use to decide where to base their headquarters. Fairfax will win every time.

40 minutes? Not a chance even on a good day….

Rail from out here is going to put more cars on the road if they take the existing bus system away.

I know quite a few people that use our current bus system several go downtown in 40 minutes (at least an hour and half or more by rail) The express bus has wifi and comfortable seating. No comfortable seating or wifi with rail.  They say they will not use rail and back to their cars if the bus system is taken away. So rail out to here may actually do the opposite of taking cars off the roads. I doubt many if any you complaining, commute by our bus system. Everybody I know love the buses and will go back to their cars if taken away. And don’t believe the costs by the cats in the hen house. Buses cost far less to buy and maintain and faster and more comfortable.

I love how the flaming liberals always blame everything wrong in their lives against conservatives. The whole rail project was a tax and spend liberal concoction. Having ridden the bus to DC from Loudoun for 2 years and having ditched it to go back to my car, I’d never get on another germ-ridden, drunk-infested bus again. I’d rather clog the infrastructure with my car than ride another bus. In fact, I’m thinking of ditching my hybrid and going for the new Freightliner pickup truck.

Why do we need a Bus Rapid Transit Station?  Just have more buses in the current system without any new transit station.  They don’t need their own dedicated lanes, just use the ones we have.  For every bus, we eliminate a couple of dozen cars.

Wow that is really short sited. All you would do is punt the ball down the field like the Springfield line did years ago.

I agree with previous poster.  Scott York flip flopping all over the place.  This guy has no character.  He said he supported rail when it was time to run for office.  He must need to keep his job so that he can keep all of those adult kids and grandkids on the county healthcare plan…something like five 20+kids and grandkids on the county healthcare plan thanks to Obamacare that he is often criticizing.  What would he do if he didn’t get the $40k plus $20 (travel) plus $15k+ in healthcare benefits?  Living large on the county taxpayer at close to $80 k in combined salary and benefits.  What else is he getting?  Is he a partner in the Hounds too?  I’m sure there is more than meets the eye.

After being the biggest proponent of this it looks like York is flipping to appease his new base of crazy right wingers.

Wow with buses One Loudoun will go belly up again without a metro stop nearby -

We already have drug addicts, gangs, and all manner of hoodlums. And there are a lot of BMW’s and Cadillacs in D.C. with a shorter drive across jurisdictional lines.

Light rail 486 passenger miles per gallon… bus 330 passenger miles per gallon…. any questions?

Chris “Do you really think crackheads and hoodlums are just chomping at the bit to get into Loudoun?”
Yep, and Metro will allow them to do just that, discreetly, efficiently, and affordably.
Just google crime near rail stations. It’s real.
Ask people who have lived in nice neighborhoods before and after rail stations.
I moved out here to get away from that!

So tell me, why spend any money on expanding an outdated transit mode that so many leaders see as a loser?

Get some cool new buses, that is where transit is headed. Note that with bus transit, there is no pay-out to the fat cat developers!

This study puts forward a transit option that works for the way people want to live, not one that requires that we reshape our way of life to include crowded, crime filled, broken down bus stations. Spending big bucks on passenger rail is definitely an outdated idea. Some pretty smart people say bus rapid transit is the way to go.

Check it out here:  “Recapturing Global Leadership in Bus Rapid Transit”.
http://www.itdp.org/documents/20110526ITDP_USBRT_Report-LR.pdf
go to www.LoudounOptOut.com

@Chris - Yes. The hood rats from DC are chomping to get their fingers on whatever they can from the wealthiest county in America. Why steal pintos and ford escorts from DC when you can ride the metro to Ashburn and steal BMWs and Escalades for the low cost of a metro ticket?

@momoney. Those crackheads and thugs will realize pretty quickly that Virginia isn’t like DC or Maryland the first time a mark shoves a glock back into their face.

@MoMoney - What an ignorant comment.  If crime has increased around Metro stations, it’s likely due to the increased density and urbanization that results from a station, not because Metro allowed more criminals to get there.  Do you really think crackheads and hoodlums are just chomping at the bit to get into Loudoun?

Just a stupid idea, what do these idiots smoke when they get up every morning.  Just stick with the plan, everything will work out.  It’s funny, people have been complaining about the traffic and how they want mass transit, now the mass transit is almost here and you are bitching about it, what did you think Metro would build it for free.  Let’s move into the 21st century.

If the silver line in linked to ashburn, every crackhead from SouthEast DC will have direct access into Loudoun. Don’t be surprised if crime rates increase as the hoodlums begin to arrive.

A lot does depend on where the Silver Line will eventually terminate. Will it terminate at Wiehle or Dulles? (I don’t know if there’s a movement to opt out in Fairfax, if only Loudoun opts out, the line will probably end at Dulles.)

The maintenance cost of BRT is also higher due to the shorter lifespan of buses, the fact that one rail car driver can carry the same number of people as

multiple bus drivers. It’ll also be subject to the same traffic jams as those of us in our single-occupant cars unless we want to build special bus-only

lanes (which then drive up the up-front costs.) We’d also be responsible for 100% of the cost of any BRT system instead of 2-3% of the costs of Metro.

Will this bus line be the typical “three buses in the morning and three in the afternoon, and you’re SOL if you have to work late” or will it rival the Columbia Pike bus line, running at least half-hourly between 4am and 10pm?

@I’d rather drive my car: Where do you live/work that it takes you as long to get to Ryan Road as it does to get you to your work?

IIRC, bus rapid transit will involve folks driving to the BRT stations unless you want to increase the number of stops.

@NoMoreTaxes: The mixed-use developments will generate more tax revenue than the 1,500 homes on quarter-acre lots that’ll likely go up if we do opt out.

Of course they want to bail on Metro Rail and opt for buses instead.  It is the only feasible to keep the Greenway and toll road in business.  As the tolls continue to soar, NO ONE will be driving on these roads.  At least with buses, they will be able to generate some revenue from these over-priced roads.  I’m sure having a bus station just have a few blocks away is going to make our property values shoot through the roof.  Another bird-brain idea from your elected officials.

Ah, of course, the dumbing down of Loudoun County.  Tea Bagger types (all four of them in Loudoun County) yelled about spending a penny, and what do we get?  A fleet of toxic spewing, aging bus lines, taking up lanes on the road, slowing us all down when it pulls to a stop at a bus stop.  Way to go!

The question for Loudoun County is not just the direct costs of the rail line, but the thousands of residential units and other massive development planned around every rail station.  All of this will inevitably drive up our taxes and further crowd our roads.

People will be driving to the rail station, whether it is at Ryan Road, or 3 miles away at Route 28 at some sort of hub. 

Right now, our comp plan shows very little parking at the proposed stations at 606 and Ryan Road because the plan is no one using rail will have cars… what about the rest of Loudoun that cannot walk to a station?  we will be using cars to get there.

So why not make Rt 28 a hub, and then put bus stations at 606 and Ryan Road?  If people are using rail, they will drive to Rt 28, unless they live near the bus, and then they can just take the bus to the rail station. 

Or if they are using express busses downtown or to the Pentagon, or to Tysons, they will have a choice to go to drive to and park at the bus stations at 606 or Ryan Road, to get them there faster, more reliably, cheaper…

The studies I have seen show that busses are 1/10th the cost of heavy rail…

Let’s face it, the subway system will do little to relieve the congestion along the Rt. 7 corridor.

It would take me almost as much time to drive to a metro station as it will for me to drive to work.

So guess what I’m going to do….continue to drive my car like I have the past 30+ years.

If MetroBUS was extended into Loudoun County, especially Eastern Loudoun, that might help.

But the inconvenient schedule of commuter buses is a deal breaker for me.

yup, we are a 2nd class community.  We have an opportunity to be “the nation’s capital”, but now we’ll be another county in Virginia.
with all the money saved we can get new signs at all entrances to the county that say “Welcome to Loudoun County Virginia, just a short bus ride to our nation’s capital”

An idea gets into a man’s mind, telling him that others are to blame for his troubles. Now how does the idea survive and reproduce? How does it pass itself on to other hosts?

First, it alters the mind of the host, so that it supports the idea. In this case, it causes the man to notice what others have done while ignoring his own contributions to his troubles. It encourages him to associate with others who will agree with his complaints and otherwise enable the behavior and thinking patterns created by the idea. It creates fear of any self-observation that might lead to other ways to see things.

Now, on the face of it, this is purely irrational. An intelligent being would normally want to see the truth, even any temporarily painful truths about himself or herself. Fully facing reality provides the most useful information after all. A better “life result” would almost certainly come from seeing what’s actually happening and which changes could help. The habit of constant complaining and blaming of others has a lousy track record of actually helping anyone, doesn’t it?

We can read the above paragraph and agree with it intellectually. Yet we are still subject to manipulation by the bad idea that blaming others as a primary response to problems we have or imagine we have is somehow “justified.” That appears very much like the host manipulation we see in nature, doesn’t it? And the idea seems to be trying to perpetuate itself.

The bad idea reproduces itself in others in several ways. First, by merely perpetuating itself in a person, it buys time for others to be infected by example. Children certainly get many ideas from parents, but the process doesn’t end there.

A bad idea also encourages the host to spread it more directly by virtue of symbiotic relationships with other infectious ideas or habitual processes. For example, most of us feel that the more people we can convince of an idea the more “right” we are. This ego process is a great mechanism which bad ideas can hijack to spread themselves. We all feel some satisfaction in getting others to believe what we believe, even though this may or may not have any benefit to us.

We also all have an inherent rationalization program in us. Bad ideas use this to spread themselves by convincing us that we have to provide “reasons” for our belief in them. Once we do this the idea is more firmly a part of our thinking, and we may even pass on our “reasoning” to others, thus making the spread of the bad idea easier.

Can you read?  The article says that the cost of Bus Rapid Transit is MORE for Loudoun then the cost of Metro.  This is for construction costs.  Subsidies will be paid for buses and rails at about the same rates EXCEPT 100% of the cost of buses will be born by Loudoun County property taxes unlike the metro which is only partially funded by Louduon County taxes.  BRILLIANT PLAN - WHO tHE Fugt thought of that idea?

Some of you don’t get it. No real estate prices will be lost because buses are faster and cheaper and more efficient. And can do what the metro can’t do by pass each other for express travel. Further buses are more comfortable and have wifi.  I was for metro many years ago and after seeing what buses can do far over a metro I changed my mind. It is insanity to bring metro out to ashburn At this time especially with the cost being more then the more complicated phase one. Any of these construction companies raping us in a recession, it should be far cheaper.

On one of the local blogs Brambleton many said they love the buses they use right now for commuting and would not take the metro. And some are scared they will eliminate the bus system so they are held hostage to take a more uncomfortable , but more important a much much longer commute. Just so metro can make more money.

Montgomery County is finding that rapid bus is what its citizens want, not more metro.  Metro is not convenient, too expensive, difficult to maintain, slow (average 25 mph) and many stops… busses are more flexible with express routes, easier to maintain, more reliable, and provide faster cheaper transportation.

Property values will be just the same with bus stations and rapid transit, as opposed to metro stations. 

No metro means Loudoun can avoid getting tangled up in an agreement to maintain and operate the entire metro system—where we the taxpayers have no control…  and it will save the average taxpayer who will not use metro a lot of money. 

The only people benefitting from metro are the cronies of MWAA, who are waiting for their big pay day.

Scrap the rail line, because it will connect Loudoun to the liberals to the east. Lets remain isolated to a degree.

How much would be lost in reduced real estate values/taxes from the land along the two stations?

I’m assuming as well the county won’t opt out in a method that exposes us to lawsuits, and I won’t even get into the opportunity cost of lost goodwill among the business community (the Chamber of Commerce types want Metro.)

Let’s not pretend, even for a second, that opting out is going to be 100% pain-free and without repercussions and will result in pure profit for the county.

The county will continue to be built out east of the Leesburg/Goose Creek/Route 15 line, and with an all-GOP Board, the temptation to increase the buildable zone around the western towns will continue to increase.

It’ll continue to cost money to build new schools, interchanges, etc., or to run bus lines.

Really smart idea, make the Rt 28 station a major bus station hub… and get out of Dulles Rail, save us Billions and the obligation to subsidize metro operations in perpetuity…. we cannot afford MWAA’s inept and corrupt management, cronyism and out of control spending with no regard for how anything will be paid for… we can control our own bus system, and should do this.. more flexible, more reliable, faster and Loudoun does not get stuck with having to pay to operate the metro system…. Metro has one billion in deferred maintenance, that they want the wealthiest county in the US on the hook for too…

This shows just how stupid Scott York is.  Stopping the Metro at Weihle avenue is an IMPOSSIBLE feat.  It will never happen.

Excellent, Smartest thing you can do.