Dulles Airport (photo by Bobby Hidy via Flickr)

(Washington D.C. - WAMU) The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has reversed its controversial decision to build an underground Metro Station at Dulles Airport.

Everyone on both sides of the battle over this decision --- the Airports Authority and Virginia's political leaders -- agree an underground station would be more convenient for travelers. And yet, with the Authority's vote today, that won't be happening.

"I will be embarrassed that the international gateway airport for the capital of my country has a slipshod station like this, says Bob Brown, a federal appointee to the Airports Board. "This is an embarrassment and an outrage, I'm sorry to say that."

The underground option that the Airports Authority chose in April would've cost almost half a billion dollars more than an above ground alternative, and the Board was under tremendous political pressure to reverse course.

Tom Davis, a Airports Board member and former Congressman, voted against the underground option in April, but says he understands why Brown and his other colleagues pushed so hard for it.

"Bob is looking at this from a visionary point of view -- where do you want this airport to be in 50, 75 years," says Davis. "And I think, all things being equal, I would've been with him."

However, Davis says in this financial climate, and in an election year in Virginia, it was just not possible to win over the political leaders who'd have to pay the extra cost. The underground station, Davis says, is just a victim of circumstance.

But now that the matter of where the Metro station should go has been decided, the negotiations are far from over. In fact, you could say the negotiations have only just begun.The Airports Authority agreed to drop its plans for an underground Metro station only on the condition that Virginia contribute an additional 150 million dollars to the Dulles Metrorail project. Without this money, Authority officials say they can’t make the project’s financial ends meet.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell says he won’t even discuss contributing more money until the Airports Authority makes changes to its labor agreement, passed in April. It requires all contractors working on the project to conform to union-level standards for wages, benefits and skills.

The Authority says this will streamline the project's operations, but McDonnell says the agreement might violate Virginia’s right-to-work laws.

For more, visit WAMU News.