ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STERLING
SOURCE: Associated Press
Three months after America's first privately built toll road in more than 150 years opened, the 14-mile highway is still the road less traveled.
The Dulles Greenway outside Washington is drawing only a third of the traffic its backers expected. The millionaire financier behind the project has laid off about 30 percent of his toll collectors, shelved plans to raise the $1.75 one-way toll and scheduled pep rallies to drum up drivers.
``People are balking at paying that high toll,'' said John Undeland, spokesman for the American Automobile Association's Washington chapter.
The road runs from Leesburg, 40 miles west of the nation's capital, to Washington's Dulles International Airport. It cuts through pastures with vistas of the Blue Ridge foothills and goes past new subdivisions and office plazas.
The toll road cuts a rush-hour drive of an hour or more to about 20 minutes. But the slower route is free.
Toll road Director Michael R. Crane, whose partnership stands to lose as much as $82 million if the road flops, is working with his creditors - chiefly three major insurance companies - in hopes of renegotiating loan terms or securing new financing.
``When there is $326 million at stake, you have lots of meetings,'' Crane said in an interview in his office near the entrance to the wide, squeaky-clean highway.
Crane acknowledged he is having problems convincing people that the time they save on his road is worth the money. But he insists the Greenway is just an idea ahead of its time, and the paying public will catch up.
He may not have much time to wait. If the toll road operators don't make up a shortfall in toll receipts - Crane won't say how much the road is losing or expected to take in - the creditors could take control later this year.
Lisa Sharpe, who works at a bank in Washington, said she used the road twice in the first week it was open, when the operators offered a free ride to entice customers. She went back to her old route into the city the day the Greenway tolls took effect.
``Yes, it did save me some time. But no, it was not worth it,'' Sharpe said. ``Maybe at some point I would feel differently, but for me paying $2 or whatever it is just seems like a luxury.''
The AAA's Undeland noted that Washington drivers are unused to tolls. A publicly built toll road east of Dulles Airport is the region's only other toll highway.
``This is not New York City, where people are used to paying a toll every time you go over a bridge,'' Undeland said.
The Dulles Greenway operators also miscalculated when they bet that drivers would rather pay one larger toll up front to drive on both the Greenway and the Dulles Toll Road, Undeland said.
``The alternative would be making two stops to pay two tolls, but the effect was to make the Greenway price seem a lot higher,'' he said. Drivers on the Greenway who continue on to the Dulles Toll Road pay a total of $2.10.
Among those who use the Greenway is Clinton Williams. For him, it means three stop lights instead of 22 between his home and the karate studio where he teaches.
``Right now there's so little traffic, it's wide open. It's great. It's like having my own private roadway,'' he said.
Last weekend, a privately built toll road opened in Southern California. The 10-mile stretch near Anaheim is the first fully automated private road, where electronic eyes read dashboard-mounted sensors and charge drivers.
The Dulles Greenway will offer the same technology later this year, Crane said.
About 10,500 cars and trucks are using the Greenway daily. Crane admitted that's disappointing but said he is still confident he can lure 34,000 vehicles to the road daily by the end of its first year in operation.
In the meantime, a 25-cent toll increase that was supposed to go into effect this week has been put on hold indefinitely. And last month, Crane laid off 19 full-time and 20 part-time toll takers.
The salesmanship begins in earnest next week, with a new advertising campaign and the first of several public question-and-answer sessions to tell people what's so great about the Greenway.
Crane will also probably offer discounts for multiple trips and other incentives.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Michael R. Crane, director of the Dulles Greenway,by CNBwalks along the underused toll road Wednesday.|