The Kaine administration expects to respond today to the Federal Transit Administration’s damning assessment of the planned extension of Metrorail to Dulles airport in an eleventh-hour bid to save the extension’s funding, though privately many officials and staff say there is little to no hope the governor’s appeal will be successful.

Gov. Tim Kaine will seek to rebut the FTA’s reasoning on why it can’t commit a critical $900 million to the rail’s first 11.6-mile phase, chiefly that it doesn’t meet a threshold for cost and ridership. Without the money, the project in its current form is almost certainly dead.

When asked whether there was hope that Kaine’s response would persuade the federal government to reverse course, Del. Vivian Watts, a former state transportation secretary, said, “You’ve got to try.

“You’ve got to continue [to correct] the record and make sure the project is fairly represented,” said Watts, who accuses the Bush administration of distorting the rail extension’s merits and history to suit an ideological bias against the project.

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FTA officials have rejected the assertion that their decision is ideologically driven, arguing the rail is one of the least efficient transit lines under their consideration, that its managers are inexperienced with work of its magnitude, and that Metro lacks the funding to maintain the rail.

Privately, numerous officials and staffers in local, state and federal government doubt Kaine’s response will persuade the FTA to change its mind. Instead, some hope for intervention from federal legislators.

“The answer is no, there is not a clear legislative fix,” Republican Sen. John Warner told The Examiner on Wednesday. “There could come a time where there’s the reconciliation between the executive branch and the state government. With that reconciliation, they might jointly approach the Congress for legislation.”

wflook@dcexaminer.com