Washington, DC — Mayor Supports One Streetcar Line

April 2015

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser released her budget for the District of Columbia Thursday and it puts the streetcar project on a spending diet, Washington Business Journal reported on April 3. The budget calls for extending the starter H Street and Benning Road line by 7.5 miles and no more.

The $370 million the District Department of Transportation proposes to spend on the line in the six-year budget period would be insufficient to extend to the Benning Road Metro and complete the line to Georgetown, according to DDOT.

The spending would include $41 million for the existing H Street/Benning Road line, including construction of the maintenance facility; $130 million to extend to Benning Road Metro; and $198 million for the extension west from Union Station to Georgetown, according to DDOT. However, completing the Georgetown extension will require additional funding beyond what is in this budget.

One Georgetown variant would cost about $340 million, according to a federally funded study. Federal funds could also supplement District spending on that project, officials said.

Estimates for the cost of extending the line to the Benning Road Metro station have varied. According to a 2013 DDOT report, that extension would cost more than $80 million, not including major expenses such as right-of-way acquisition, bridge reconstruction and repair costs for a key intersection. DDOT now estimates it will spend about $130 million on the project over six years.