**FILE** The platform at Metro's Branch Avenue station is shown here. (Anthony TIlghman/The Washington Informer)
**FILE** The platform at Metro's Branch Avenue station is shown here. (Anthony TIlghman/The Washington Informer)

Metro officials announced Monday that the transit agency’s Silver Line extension will be ready for customers on Nov. 15.

The line will extend to Washington Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, Va., for the first time, with six new stations — Reston Town Center, Herndon, Innovation Center, Washington Dulles International Airport, Loudoun Gateway, and Ashburn — going into service.

The extension completes the first phase of a 23-mile expansion that started construction in 2009 and debuted the first segment five years later.

Customers at the new stations will be greeted by Metro personnel and receive commemorative pennants, a tradition by the agency dating back to when its first station opened in 1976.

At the Dulles station, customers will be able to claim their baggage and walk in an underground tunnel for less than five minutes to get on Metrorail, agency officials said.

“We appreciate our partners at the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, the Federal Transit Administration, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, Fairfax and Loudoun counties who have worked collaboratively with us for several years to reach this moment,” said Metro General Manager Randy Clarke.

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