Metro Silver Line: It's official (but keep clapping, just in case)

With the stroke of a pen attended by a host of old white men standing in front of an oddly communist slogan, the awesome Metro Silver Line, which will bring occasional subway service to Reston, Dulles Airport, and the particleboard crap beyond, actually just might happen now, or at least stay financially viable for long enough to create a giant construction project with tons of orange cones with flashing lights and giant piles of dirt and traffic-snarling lane closures before the federal gubmint runs out of money and the country devolves into anarchy. But hey -- shiny underground trains!

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sealed the fate of one of the largest transit projects in the country yesterday when he signed an agreement that commits $900 million of federal funds to help build the $5.2 billion Silver Line from northwest Arlington to Loudoun County.

This very very exciting news comes after the project received several official FTA "letters of no prejudice," which is bureaucratese for "good luck with that."

Meanwhile, the developers grassroots organizers who have continued to fight for an awesome tunnel filled with bejeweled frescos bearing the image of Crystal Koons to preserve Tysons Corner's frail urban beauty, are still at it:

The Silver Line's aerial configuration through Tysons continues to trouble detractors who pressed for a tunnel; one grass-roots organization, Tysonstunnel.org, announced yesterday that it is still exploring legal options to encourage competitive bidding on a tunnel.

Awesome! We're starting to get bored without a good nuisance lawsuit to keep us entertained. Anyhoo, the awesome project is expected to reach Wiehle Avenue by 2013, where incoming trains will be greeted by a shiny, gold-plated station that terminates in the lobby of Reston's awesome new headquarters building, where every disembarking passenger will be handed a pool pass, the end.