Disinformation Rally Against GEORGE Shifts to High Gear

With only a week left before the City holds a public hearing on its plan to scuttle the GEORGE commuter bus service, a powerful lobbyist organization has lent its support and issued an “alert” to its members entitled “By GEORGE It’s Expensive.”

The “alert” lists a litany of GEORGE offenses, concluding that “GEORGE costs taxpayers about $600,000 per year or $8.00 for every 50-cent fare.”

The “alert” comes from the “Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance,” a well-funded lobby for the construction of more roads and bridges. Past “alerts” include attacks against local politicians who voted against widening I-66. A February 19 “alert” states:

City of Falls Church residents experiencing overflow I-66 traffic on neighborhood streets should “thank” David Snyder, Falls Church City Council.

The GEORGE “alert” also quotes the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission as stating that:

“(GEORGE’s) ridership has not been strong… (but) “the image of Falls Church is enhanced with the presence of such a resource.”

The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) sounds a lot like the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, but the two entities are chalk and cheese. The NVTC is the government entity in charge of allocating federal and state subsidies to municipalities such as Falls Church that provide public transportation.

When quoting the NVTC, the Alliance lobby group failed to report the NVTC conclusion that due to state subsidies,

“. . . the net cost to the City has been under $3 [rather than $8] per passenger trip.”

As of April 7, the anti-GEORGE alert was not yet posted on the Alliance lobby website. It was available, however, on the website operated by Falls Church Mayor Robin Gardner’s husband, Mike Gardner.

Mike Gardner, writing in “Blueweeds,” stated that:

“The regional debate about the financial viability and/or changes to the GEORGE local bus system escalated this past week as two key regional proponents of transportation questioned the costs of the system.”

One of those “proponents of transportation” is the above-mentioned Alliance lobby. The other, Gardner reported, is the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which he claimed “will hold a series of public hearings to discuss eliminating and/or dramatically increasing the fares for GEORGE users as part of an effort to reduce the costs of so-called regional reimbursable local projects.”

After extensive communication with the director of the NVTC, it is this reporter’s understanding that the WMATA public hearings have nothing to do with an effort to reduce costs of “reimbursable” local transportation. WMATA is required to hold a public hearing any time a route change is proposed. It is the City of Falls Church that proposes to discontinue GEORGE, not WMATA. And WMATA has never “questioned the cost of GEORGE,” because it bears none of it.

The City’s public hearing on GEORGE is scheduled for Monday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Read Mayor Gardner’s husband’s website here.

Read the NVTC GEORGE evaluation here.

Read the NVTA lobby group website here.

Read the City’s GEORGE proposal here.

Read the FCT on “How to Save GEORGE” here.

Read the FCT on transit subsidies here.