VA Regulators To Hold Remote Hearing On Greenway Rate Hike Plan

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — State regulators are giving residents the option to voice their opinion by telephone on a private company's application to increase the toll on the Dulles Greenway by 6 to 6.8 percent each year over the next five years. Toll Road Investors Partnership II LP (TRIP II), an Australia-based company, owns the highway, a 14-mile road that connects the Dulles Toll Road to communities in Ashburn and terminates in Leesburg.

Due to the coronavirus crisis, the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which has regulatory oversight over the private road, is conducting the public hearing remotely. Anyone who would like up to five minutes of time to comment by telephone may sign up by filling out a form on the commission’s website, sending an email to SCCInfo@scc.virginia.gov, or calling the SCC at 804-371-9141 during normal business hours.

The public hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on June 30. The deadline to provide contact information to the SCC is 5 p.m. on June 26. The SCC hearing examiner assigned to the rate hike application (Case No. PUR-2019-00218) is D. Mathias Roussy Jr.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, which opposes the proposed rate hikes, noted that the rate hikes would increase the toll by about one-third over the five-year period.

"It is insensitive of TRIP II to rush through this proceeding to raise tolls on the Greenway at a time when everyone's financial future is uncertain due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis J. Randall said in a statement released in April. "A toll rate increase of this magnitude would put a heavy economic burden on workers in Loudoun County, many of whom may not be getting a paycheck for the next few months."

Del. Dave LaRock, who represents part of Loudoun County in the House of Delegates, also strongly opposes the proposed rate increase. "Since 1995, TRIP II has increased tolls in a manner that makes the Greenway unaffordable to many residents ofLoudoun County and the surrounding region," LaRock said in comments filed with the SCC on May 7.