Washington, DC

Groundbreaking for Modern Streetcars

On November 13, 2004 a groundbreaking ceremony was held for a demonstrator modern streetcar line in the southeast section of Washington, DC. Intended to showcase technology for a future system of lines running through the city, the initial stretch will connect Pennsylvania Avenue with Bolling Air Force, serving the Anacostia section of the city. Click on the following links for news articles describing the project.

• Washington Times article - 11/14/04
   
• Bloomberg News article - 12/27/06

Follow this link for a project description prepared by the DC Department of Transportation:

• DC Streetcar

Subsequently several other proposals have emerged for additional streetcar lines in the Washington area, some downtown (H Street and Benning Road) and another in nearby Virginia suburbs along the Columbia Pike.

On June 14, 2006, Rosemary Covington, Administrator of the DC Department of Transportation, presented the status of the Anacostia project at the APTA rail conference. The following are key points from her presentation:

• Primary reasons for considering re-introduction of streetcars to  Washington are:

  - The Metro system is a suburb to downtown connector but does not serve in-town trips the way traditional subway systems do. Many Metro lines are operating at capacity as are the buses that distribute Metro riders downtown.
  - Congestion and parking problems are growing in the city
  - Population and employment are projected to grow 20% over the next 25 years
   

• A comprehensive alternatives analysis identified streetcars as a good solution to downtown distribution
• Two delegations who have traveled to Portland support mixed operation of streetcars in neighborhood streets. Others have concerns so the initial stretch has been shortened to demonstrate the concept before further street-running sections are completed.
• The schedule calls for engineering to be complete in Spring 2006, construction to begin in Fall 2006, and operation to begin in Spring 2007
• Planning continues to include track for a future line in the H Street-Benning Road coordinator as the streets are rebuilt. Including the track may increase the reconstruction cost by about $9 million.
• The following images show the planned livery and route systems:

The colors being considered for the streetcars are based on DC Cirulcator bus at top.	The planned initial segment is from Bolling Air Force base (lower left) to Anacostia Metro Station (upper right).	Shown here are corridors which will potentially see streetcar service in the long run.

The link below is to a later map of planned streetcar routes published by the Washington Post in March, 2008:

• Washington Post Map - 03/2008
   

The below links are to news notes from Rail Transit Online that further describe streetcar planning in the Washington area:

• December 2004
   
• March 2005
   
• May 2005
   
• February 2006
   
• June 2006
   
• August 2006
   
• March 2007
   
• February 2008