The board also approved an additional increase of 25 cents at the main toll plaza starting on Jan. 1, 2011, and another 25-cent increase at the main toll plaza on Jan. 1, 2012. There will be no increases at the ramp areas in 2011 or 2012.
Currently, tolls are 75 cents at the main toll plaza and 50 cents at the ramps.
The increases are needed, Airports Authority officials said in a statement, to help fund the construction of rail to Dulles International Airport. More than half of the $5 billion it's estimated the project will cost will be paid for with bonds backed by toll revenues -- a concept some challenge.
"We continue to be very concerned about the funding mechanism for the construction of rail to Dulles International Airport," AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson said in a statement. "The burden for funding is falling on the shoulders of a very small number of motorists -- mainly the users of the Dulles Toll Road who live in Loudoun County."
MWAA did not know what percentage of Dulles Toll Road users live in Loudoun. However, during recent public input on the toll hike, 30 percent of 210 people who submitted comments said they lived in Loudoun, according to MWAA.
Of the comments MWAA garnered, most were in opposition to the toll hikes:
“Have you people lost your minds? The Toll road is already too expensive to be used o a regular basis,” one Winchester resident commented via the Web. “It would be nice if you LOWERED the price.”
A Sterling resident wrote: “Another set of hikes to pay for the boondoggle known as the Silver Line! ... I have a better idea: How about the next hike on the Toll Road be aimed at the people who still insist on using CASH and slowing the rest of us on the ramps?"
Toll increases are nothing new for local commuters. Last January, tolls at the privately owned Dulles Greenway in Loudoun, which terminates in east at the Dulles Toll Road, went up by $1 during peak driving hours and 40 cents during non-peak hours.
See www.mwaa.com/tollroad to learn more.
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Out of all the public comments that were submitted during the most recent comment period, only 24% supported the toll hikes, yet the MWAA board went ahead with their plan to raise them anyway. This is what happens when an unelected entity gains control of a public facility and does not have to worry about voter backlash.
Expect Dulles Toll Road taxes, AKA fees and fares, to keep going up every year after 2012 to service the mountain of debt that is building up.