THE MISSING LINK in the Washington DC Green Line is to open on September 18. WMATA announced in January that work on the $643m 4·7 km segment would be completed three months ahead of schedule. With stations at Columbia Heights and Georgia Avenue-Petworth, the mid-city section will finally link the isolated Fort Totten - Greenbelt branch and the inner portion of the line from U Street-Cardozo to Anacostia. This leaves just the Anacostia - Branch Avenue line with five stations, now due to open in 2001, to complete the 165 km network authorised in 1971 (DM 95 p77).

Another proposal to extend the metro to the growing suburb of Tysons Corner, Virginia, has been unveiled by local and federal officials. It was to have been served by a station on the proposed link to Dulles Airport. The new plan envisages an 11·2 km elevated branch, diverging from the Orange line at West Falls Church, and terminating with a loop around Tysons Corner, serving shopping centres, offices and other traffic generators. At least $121m in state and federal money is already available towards the estimated cost of $700m to $900m, and if the rest can be raised quickly, the branch could be open by 2005.

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