The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority originally projected that the so-called Silver Line would begin carrying passengers to the airport by 2016. But the authority’s latest plans for the completion of the 23-mile Dulles Rail project show that construction won’t be complete until as late as the summer of 2017. A committee of board members was supposed to make a recommendation for building the station either above or below ground, but deferred that decision after a debate about costs. While an underground station would be 600 feet closer to the airport terminal, it would cost between $240 million and $350 million more than an aboveground station.
Either way, the completion dates were moved back by as much as a year by the airports authority Wednesday.
