Cool quay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> He got what he wanted, so he needs to STFU. This
> guy, who I love, sent me an email about some open
> house about the toll road. Look, I don't mind
> paying the rates, because the road is always kept
> clean and it's better than having VDOT mismanage
> it.
>
> But seriously, Frank sounds like a hypocrite right
> now.
Ah, now I see what you're talking about. From Frank Wolf's website...
Greenway
http://wolf.house.gov/greenway
Fighting Greenway Toll Increase
I have long taken issue with the owners of the Dulles Greenway and the way they operate the road. I have criticized their outrageous tolls, their refusal to even study distance-based pricing and their refusal to work with me to make the road more user friendly.
Excessive Tolls
During rush hours, it now costs $4.90 to use the road, and if drivers are coming from or going onto the Dulles Toll Road the rate is $5.90. That means a daily round trip would be $11.80. Over the course of a month, a daily commuter could spend the equivalent of a car payment. If you live in one of the communities just off the Greenway, you could easily get on and off the road multiple times a day taking your children to soccer practice, day care, or to take your family out for dinner. In fact, it costs $4.90 to go approximately 1.1 miles during rush hour; the same cost to travel the entire road. To charge such high tolls to go such short distances significantly reduces the number of options for area residents. They must either change route to avoid the Greenway or change their plans altogether. Residents should not be forced into this decision to prevent the Greenway owners from losing money.
Distance Pricing
The owners of the Greenway have continually refused to do a distance pricing study. Public roads, such as the New Jersey Turnpike, and private roads such as the Indiana Toll Road, use distance-based pricing. I was disappointed last year when I read this article in the Ashburn Patch stating that TRIP II declined to even perform a distance pricing study. According to the article, TRIP II CEO Tom Sines said, “We didn’t do a full-blown study. There is a risk in that this would not increase revenue and the company would be out $6.5 million that I would have to explain to the bond holders. It’s just a gamble.” While new equipment to implement distance pricing might cost $6.5 million, a feasibility study most surely would cost much less. Yet, the Greenway owner steadfastly refuses to even do a study.
Dulles Greenway Advisory Committee
Based on the Greenway’s intransigence, I asked then-Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton in July 2010 to establish a Dulles Greenway Advisory Committee, which was fully operational in 2011. My goal was to provide a way for Loudoun residents to sit face-to-face with local elected officials and Greenway officials to share their thoughts on the road and how the high tolls negatively impact their lives. While I appreciated VDOT’s willingness to set up the committee, I was disappointed that elected officials were not included and that the committee could not discuss distance-based pricing. The Greenway Advisory Committee met multiple times to discuss ways to make the road more user-friendly, with a focus on signs that inform drivers of toll rates before they enter the road. Signs are located on the west-bound Dulles Toll Road prior to the final exit as well as on north and sound-bound Route 772 in Loudoun County. Additional signs were installed on Route 607 and on Route 606 going both east and west-bound at the Greenway’s entrance on September 20, 2013.
Please be assured that I will continue to closely monitor this situation. For more information, please see the references and timeline below. In addition, please don’t hesitate to contact my office to share your questions or thoughts on this issue.
Click here for a timeline of important events surrounding Greenway tolls from 2006 to the present.
http://wolf.house.gov/greenway-continued
Timeline
•June 6, 2013– Rep. Wolf testifies at another SCC hearing in Loudoun asking the SCC to work with the General Assembly to find a solution to the Greenway’s tolls. (more)
•April 9, 2013– The SCC holds a public hearing in Loudoun County on the Greenway tolls, where Rep. Wolf submitted a statement urging the state to take control over the road. (more)
•July 18, 2012- Rep. Wolf writes Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to have the consumer protection division of his office examine the toll structure on the Dulles Greenway. (more)
•May, 2012- Greenway Advisory Committee approves design and location of signs providing information on minimum and maximum tolls. Signs will be placed on west-bound route 267 (Dulles Toll Road) prior to Route 28 exits and on east and west-bound Route 772 in Loudoun County.
•December 9, 2011- Rep. Wolf writes the Virginia Secretary of Transportation outlining his concerns about the Greenway Advisory Committee as well as the safety concerns the high tolls on the Greenway cause. (more)
•July 28, 2010- Rep. Wolf writes the Virginia Secretary of Transportation with a series of recommendations to make the road more user friendly and urges a rollback of the toll increases. (more)
•January 13, 2009- Wolf writes to head of Macquarie, the parent company of the Greenway, criticizing the lavish holiday party that was thrown while tolls increased on the Greenway. (more)
•March 5, 2008- Rep. Wolf asks the General Assembly to freeze Greenway tolls and to address the flaws in the law governing the operation of the road. (more)
•December 12, 2007- Rep. Wolf asks the governor and the leaders of the Virginia General Assembly to hold hearings to examine the operation of the road and move to roll back the recently approved toll hikes planned over the next several years. Wolf also specifically asks that the General Assembly address the flaws in the original legislation governing the operation of the Greenway to protect the users of the road from excessive toll increases. (more)
•October 15, 2007- Rep. Wolf asks for a thorough review of the business practices of the foreign company that owns and operates the Greenway after press reports suggest the firm is "engaging in an old-fashioned ponzi scheme." (more)
•September 12, 2007- Rep. Wolf releases a statement on the SCC's decision to approve the toll increases, saying, "I am disappointed in today's decision by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to allow for increased tolls on the Dulles Greenway. The original state law which created the public private partnership to allow a private corporation to own and operate the Greenway is flawed because it fails to protect the consumer. The law instead protects the bottom line of the foreign-based Greenway owner. Today the SCC confirmed what I have stated all along by admitting that their hands were tied in making this decision." (full statement)
•September 11, 2007- The SCC approves the Greenway toll increases. (view report)
•August 3, 2007- Rep. Wolf writes the SCC sharing some of the e-mails he has received from moms, dads and others in the region about how the toll increases will impact them. (view letters)
•July 26, 2007- Rep. Wolf writes to the SCC seeking a delay in the approval of the toll increase until the General Assembly convenes again in 2008 and has an opportunity to review the public-private agreement governing the construction and operation of the Greenway. (more)
•June 28, 2007- The SCC hearing examiner releases a report on the toll increase application. The report includes his recommendations that the toll increases should be approved by the SCC.
•May 17, 2007- Rep. Wolf writes Governor Kaine's administration seeking a delay in the toll increase until the General Assembly can review the original agreement governing the construction and operation of the road. "This is disturbing," Wolf wrote. "No requirement that toll rates must be just and reasonable? And more important, affordable? This is unacceptable, and must be changed. How can the Commonwealth justify such a one-sided law that clearly benefits the Greenway owner while blatantly taking advantage of the users of the road? So Macquarie Group International, the Australian mega-bank which owns TRIP II, is free to charge outrageous tolls on anyone who travels the Greenway?" he continued. (more)
•January 30, 2007- The SCC holds public hearings at the Loudoun County Government Center in Leesburg to receive comments from public witnesses. Rep. Wolf testifies at the hearing, saying that "price gouging" comes to mind when he thinks of the toll increases. Fifty-nine witnesses testified with all but one voicing opposition to the increase. (more)
•November 2, 2006- The SCC schedules a public hearing on the toll increases for January 30, 2007.
•October 16, 2006- Rep. Wolf submits testimony to the Virginia General Assembly House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, chaired by Delegate Joe May of Loudoun, at a hearing held on the proposed Dulles Greenway Toll Increase. (full testimony)
•September 22, 2006- Rep. Wolf is joined by West Virginia Congresswoman Shelley Moore-Capito and Virginia State Delegates Joe May and David Poisson at a AAA press conference on the Greenway toll increases. At the press conference Rep. Wolf says, "From the beginning, this road was to be a public/private partnership. Today, there is no public in this partnership. This is a company bent on turning this road into a cash cow." (full statement)
•September 6, 2006- Rep. Wolf writes the SCC officially requesting that a hearing be held to receive public input on the toll increases. (more)
•September 5, 2006- Rep. Wolf writes the SCC opposing the proposed toll increase for the Dulles Greenway, arguing that the increase would make the Greenway one of the most expensive toll highways per mile of travel in the country. (more)
•July 19, 2006- Toll Road Investors Partnership II, L.P. (TRIP II) files an application with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) for an increase in the maximum authorized level of tolls for the Dulles Greenway.