Photo by bfdonahue.

During a press conference this afternoon, Mayor Vince Gray rescinded his support for an underground Metro station at Dulles International Airport, choosing to endorse a plan supported by Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and other politicians to build the station above-ground.

Gray argued that he’d rather have above-ground access to Dulles than no station at all. “I have reconsidered my position and we don’t want to wind up with nothing,” he told reporters. The decision stems from a meeting Gray recently had with McDonnell, who has said that the state cannot afford to spend the extra $300 million that an underground station would cost to build. It was unclear whether Gray was able to extract anything from McDonnell in exchange for his support.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is in charge of building and planning the Dulles rail extension, decided in April to build the station at Dulles underground in order to maximize convenience for riders. (While he doesn’t have a direct say on what happens with the Dulles project, Gray is responsible for appointing members to the MWAA board.) An underground station would also have the added benefit of not blocking Eero Saarinen’s iconic design of Dulles’ main terminal. Detractors of the underground option argue that such a station will take about six more months to build and some believe that a station located farther away from the terminal might help to promote development around the proximity of the airfield.