The Silver Line could open as early as this summer under a new agreement between Metro and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Do you have a salt shaker? Shake out a grain, because you’ve heard something like this before.

In a release, General Manager Richard Sarles says Metro will give the agency responsible for the Silver Line’s construction “additional time to complete certain items after the project is turned over to Metro, but prior to the start of passenger service.”

“Without the agreement, the Airports Authority would have been required to complete all items before Metro takes control, meaning an opening date that would be later in the year,” the release states. The agreement, which is a PDF, can be seen here.

MWAA announced today that contractor Dulles Transit Partners has reached “substantial completion” of the Silver Line’s phase 1. You may be thinking, wasn’t that already announced? It was, but it turned out that seven out of 12 criteria areas were “deficient,” including performance issues with the Automatic Train Control System.

“We have conducted a thorough review of the contractor’s submission and are satisfied that Phase 1 has met the contractual requirements that will allow the project to now move to the next steps in the process to begin passenger service,” Airports Authority President and CEO Jack Potter said in a release. “We appreciate the close cooperation among WMATA and our partners in moving this large and complex project forward.”

Now that “substantial completion” has happened, the project can reach the “Operational Readiness Date,” meaning it can be turned over to Metro. Sarles says this could happen in late May. Add 90 days of “testing, employee training and emergency drills,” and you’ve got the start of passenger service in late summer. “Silver Line’s opening date will be set by the Metro Board of Directors after the project is in Metro’s control,” the release says.

Your move, streetcar. (We’ll actually have an update on that later today.)