Update: Metro officials say that the Silver Line extension to Dulles International Airport will open for use in early 2022, most likely in February.

“What we’re looking at is early 2022, first quarter in calendar 2022, as the likely start of operations,” Laura Mason, Metro’s executive vice president for capital delivery, said at a board meeting Thursday.

However, she added that it’s hard to set a specific date for operational readiness testing or an opening date for commuters. After Labor Day, when Metro is scheduled to take over the project from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the agency will take five months to test the 11-mile extension between Reston and Loudoun County. The Washington Post first reported the news.

“Based on the information we have now, I think that is a safe assumption that we would not start service prior to January of 2022,” Mason said.

Metro also will be getting federal funding through the congressional American Rescue Plan, which will effectively eliminate the need to close stations, as previously proposed.

Original, March 5th:

Metro says the Silver Line extension from Wiehle-Reston to Ashburn won’t open in 2021, as previously expected.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is in charge of building the 23-mile, six-station extension, announced Friday that it would be prepared to hand off the extension to WMATA around Labor Day of this year.

The project’s “substantial completion” means it will then be up to Metro to determine if the project is up to standards.

Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld says that means passenger service won’t start until at least 2022.

“Today’s announcement enables Metro to begin planning and budgeting for the start of service in early 2022,” Wiedefeld said in a statement. “As MWAA achieves substantial completion, Metro will be testing, conducting system safety certification, and recruiting and training employees to get ready for passenger service.”

The extension was originally set to open in 2018, but concrete, track, switch and a host of other problems needed to be fixed first.

“We understand the concerns caused by construction delays, and we thank our project partners and contractors for their commitment as we work together to deliver a safe, reliable and durable rail line to serve the traveling public,” Charles Stark, Airports Authority senior vice president of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, said in a release.

The Silver Line Phase II extension stretches from the current terminus at Wiehle-Reston to Ashburn. The 23-mile extension adds six new stations, including Dulles Airport.

It's been plagued with concrete, track, switch and other issues and originally was set to open in 2018 pic.twitter.com/mAluWWLeyB

— Jordan Pascale (@JWPascale) March 5, 2021

Phase I of the project, which extends from West Falls Church to Wiehle-Reston, Virginia, began passenger service in 2014. For the first phase of the Silver Line, Metro and MWAA had an agreement for a handoff in April 2014 and took the project over on May 27. Metro then launched the line on July 25.

Phase II adds six stations, including one at Dulles International Airport, and ends in Ashburn in Loudoun County.

Metro had begun its budgeting process estimating that the extension would open by July. Then that opening date was pushed to September, and now to 2022. Some board members had advocated moving back the opening date of the extension to save money as Metro faces an unprecedented budget crunch because of the pandemic. Virginia Metro board members pushed back on that idea, saying the line was key to the economic growth and vitality of that region and it should open as soon as it’s ready.

If the line does open in early 2022, some stations may not open. Three stations, Reston Town Center, Innovation Center and Loudoun Gateway, are on the list of 22 stations that are slated to close to save money. That could change if federal relief funding, currently making its way through the Senate, passes.