Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 42, 2011

The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, formally dubbed the Silver Line, is an extension of the Washington Metro rapid transit system, currently under construction with the goal of providing rapid transit service to Dulles International Airport and Tysons Corner. The line consists of 29 stations from Route 772 in Loudoun County, Virginia, to Stadium–Armory in Washington, D.C., United States. The current plan calls for stations in Loudoun, Fairfax, and Arlington counties in Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Eighteen stations will be shared with the Orange Line, including all thirteen shared between the Orange and Blue Lines from Rosslyn to Stadium–Armory. The line will be 23 mi long and is estimated to cost up to $6.8 billion. In 2008, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) started building the new track in Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia. The sections in Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., are to be shared with the Orange and Blue Lines, which were completed in the 1970s and 1980s. The line will open in two phases with 11.6 miles (18.7 km) of Phase I service to Reston, Virginia, to open in 2013 and an additional 11.5 mi of Phase II service to the airport and Loudoun County in 2016. The Silver Line is the largest expansion project by route mileage since the inception of the Washington Metro in 1976.