So, still workin’ on it, but I think the “Yellow Brick Road” might be a good theme to explore – I mean, at $190,000 a foot, we could line up 1 kilo gold bars, end-to-end, for those 2.9 miles, and still have enough left over to throw a party – and we won’t have to pay annual maintenance on it after.

And the whole “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” is just fraught with meaning – there are any number of characters with murky intentions, lurking back there in the shadows, pulling the levers for their own ends.

And I think we have plenty of nominees to play the part of the Munchkins …

Anyway, if George Allen doesn’t run a non-stop series of commercials in Northern Virginia thanking Tim Kaine for turning over the toll toad to MWAA, and our commuters to their clutches, then he’s a moron …

The Opt Out crowd has never stated that tolls won’t go up if we Opt Out, they are slated to go up in 2013. And up. And up. No matter the 2.8 miles into Ashburn, tolls will go up. That is how it goes with MWAA when they have total control over tolls and bus routes. Remember, they control how many buses can ride on their turf. They control the whole enchilada.

Who enters into a long term (as in forever) agreement with goons like this? “Don’t do what we like? We will cut your bus routes”. Nice mafia tactics.

I agree on Kaine’s massive fail in giving the toll road away, but I don’t agree with the taxpig fiction that tolls won’t go up if we opt out–they will go up all the more.

The worst part of this project was when Tim Kaine handed control of the Dulles Toll Road over to the MWAA, an unelected entity that can set tolls (it’s really a form of taxation) as high as they please. High tolls, which they say won’t be affected much if Loudoun opts out, will have a severe negative impact on economic development in the county. Who would would want to work or do business here if they have to pay up to $17 in tolls to get out here? Only a small percentage will be able to use the metro. Without a toll-free expressway, Loudoun will effectively be cut off from the inner core of the DC metro area.

I don’t like the deal either. I would prefer an alternative. But I also believe we need something (eventually all the way to Leesburg and beyond) that ties into Metro.

Do I want Metro to clean up its act? Yes. Even if we didn’t join, I’d want that because government waste at any level hurts us. I’d love to see the heads of the WMATA held accountable. The whole of the organization needs accountability. Yet I see that as a battle that will be fought separately.

Metro is neither conservative or liberal. Conservative means limited government, not no government. Because I see transportation as core central to government responsibility, I see Metro, or some other transportation solution, as one of the few things on which government *should* spend money. I am not an anarchist.

I would absolutely love an alternative. I’ve been saying that *loudly* now for quite a while. Nobody yet has come up with one. Give me an alternative, and you will have me fight against Metro, because I too see the MWAA as a mismanaged. Give a viable alternative that has the government doing what it IS supposed to do … and not just more of the same.

In a bow to an old railroad tradition, we should come up with an appropriate name for those 2.8 miles of a public transportation giant….Santa Fe Chief; Broadway Limited; California Limited; 20th Century; Empire State Express; City of San Francisco; Coastal Starlight…you know the drill. Now, let’s see…York’s Yoke? Buona’s Boondoggle? I’m open to suggestions here.

That is largely because of the deregulation that took place over 30 years ago.

Make sure you don’t put the DATE on it, so you can reuse it for as long as necessary.

This deal doesn’t solve congestion. Even it’s supporters will admit, sometimes just behind the scenes – that this is not a transportation project. Some electeds will even tell you “this sucks, but we have to pass it”.

Currently there are no eminent domain issues. Never in the history of rail has a deal like this been penned and signed where local tax dollars are going to be used for quasi-gov’t agency maintenance backlog and financing a rail line that doesn’t meet federal requirements.

It is quite remarkable.