You won’t see peak fares on the Dulles Greenway go up to $8.10. The State Corporation Commission rejected the toll operator’s request to increase rates.
The SCC, a state regulatory agency, dismissed the proposed hike for the 14-mile toll road, agreeing with its senior hearing examiner Michael Thomas who recommended in May that the agency deny the proposed increases. The proposal would have raised the off-peak toll to $6.40 from $5.25 and the peak toll to $8.10 from $5.80.
In his 159-page report, Thomas wrote that raising tolls would “materially discourage use of the Greenway.”
In issuing its decision on Wednesday, the SCC said Toll Road Investors Partnership II, the operator of the Dulles Greenway, “failed to establish that the Proposed Tolls (1) will be reasonable to the user in relation to the benefit obtained, and (2) will not materially discourage (as that term is defined in the statute) use of the roadway by the public, both as similarly found by the Senior Hearing Examiner.”
“We are pleased with this decision by the SCC, since a toll rate increase of this magnitude would have put a heavy economic burden on Loudoun County motorists,” said Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis J. Randall, in a news release.
Loudoun County opposed the price increase. It provided the SCC with an analysis that said drivers who would no longer use the toll road would offset any increased revenue from the tolls. The result, the county said, would be increased congestion on its public roads.
The SCC held a Chantilly hearing, as well as telephone and evidentiary hearings, to hear from the community about the Dulles Greenway rate proposal.
“I’m thankful to the more than 900 citizens who participated in this process and allowed the SCC to hear firsthand how helpful it is to them that tolls do not increase,” Randall said.
“It is gratifying that the State Corporation Commission (SCC) confirmed what we all know to be true: The last thing the Dulles Greenway needs is even higher tolls,” said Dulles District Supervisor Matt Letourneau, who chairs the Board of Supervisors’ Finance, Government Operations and Economic Development Committee.
“Over the last several years, the county has successfully executed a strategy to both clarify the law and fight the Greenway’s constant attempts to raise tolls — either through the SCC process or by legislative action,” Letourneau said. “I’m hopeful that the Greenway will finally get the message, but if not we will not let up.”
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
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