Company seeks to overturn Va. Supreme Court’s rejection of toll increase request

This comes after the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the unanimous decision by the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to reject the proposal because it did not demonstrate that the proposed rates would be “reasonable to the user in relation to the benefit obtained.”

Atlas Arteria, which owns the roadway, is regulated by the SCC under the Virginia Highway Corporation Act, which allows the company to request a toll increase once per year but doesn’t permit it to negotiate those increases.

On July 11, 2023, TRIP II applied to raise tolls on vehicles, including two-axle vehicles, from $5.80 to $8.10 during peak hours and from $5.25 to $6.40 during off-peak hours, to cover its debt payments and operating expenses. Traveling the toll road cost commuters driving two-axle vehicles $1.75 and $3.50 for all other vehicles when the road opened in 1995.

Court records indicate TRIP II’s debt stood at $1.1 billion as of December 2022.

“TRIP II’s pending federal case, which was stayed in anticipation of the SCV appeal decision, will now proceed,” said Atlas Arteria in a statement. “The federal complaint alleges constitutional violations distinct from those decided by the (Supreme Court) and seeks compensatory, declarative, injunctive, and other relief, unavailable to TRIP II in the SCV appeal.”

The company said TRIP II would continue to engage with the SCC’s working group and plans to file a new proposal to raise toll rates later this year.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement on Thursday that the proposal failed to meet the basic legal standards of reasonableness and public benefit and that the high court upheld the commission’s finding that the proposed tolls were unjustified and unreasonably burdensome on the public.

Virginia law mandates that toll increases must be reasonable to drivers in relation to the benefit received.

In October 2023, the Virginia Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Counsel joined the case for TRIP II’s rate increase, along with Loudoun County.

“This is an enormous win for hardworking Virginians who are already stretched thin by rising costs,” Miyares said in a statement on July 17. “No private company has the right to exploit a government franchise to gouge commuters, especially when public alternatives exist. My office stood up to defend Virginia consumers from the largest toll increase in Dulles Greenway history, and today, common sense prevailed.”

Loudoun County leaders also celebrated the court’s decision. The toll road runs between Leesburg and Washington Dulles International Airport, situated in Loudoun County.

County leaders asked to participate in the case because they believe “decades of increased tolls on the Greenway prevent drivers from using it, which results in increased congestion on public roads in the county and forces Loudoun County to expand other roads at public expense.”

In anticipation of the Supreme Court’s decision, TRIP II filed its complaint in February in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District shortly after the SCC’s decision on Sept. 4, 2024. Since the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling, no additional hearings have been scheduled.

Originally written for VirginiaMercury and it originally published as Company seeks to overturn Va. Supreme Court’s rejection of toll increase request