DC Streetcars Delayed Until 2013

• June 29, 2011
• 7 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

DC residents will now have to wait two years before they see streetcars rolling down the city’s avenues.

WTOP is reporting that the earliest DC will see streetcars will be late 2013, rather than at some point next year. From WTOP:

“2013 is what we are telling people now,” John Lisle, spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Transportation, [told the station]. “We’re probably looking at the fall of 2013.”

The first streetcar lines were expected to roll out next year along the H Street Corridor and in Anacostia.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc_streetcars_delayed_until_2013/3738

7 Comments

1. long walk said at 10:46 pm on Wednesday June 29, 2011:

   nice job, dc!
   i want adrian fenty back.

1. swester said at 12:49 am on Thursday June 30, 2011:

   A delay on a major metropolitan transportation project? Well, if this isn’t the surprise of the century.

1. streetcar named debacle said at 2:57 pm on Thursday June 30, 2011:

   they’re a bad idea anyway, hopefully these delays result in them scrapping plans to ruin other neighborhoods

1. PleasantPlainer said at 7:24 pm on Saturday July 2, 2011:

   Bad idea…huh? Can you elaborate? How can brand new, modern, fixed-rail transit improvements be bad? I lived in Milan and used street cars all the time to get everywhere. They rock!

1. shaun said at 10:11 pm on Sunday July 3, 2011:

   Ruin other neighborhoods?!?!?! Because H-street was both a mecca of modern living and quality roads.  These will be a fantastic way to serve dense neighborhoods which have less transit options (without a metro station).  We aren’t building another SE Freeway (which takes up a ton of space and fractured the city in half).
   The streetcar was and still is a fantastic idea - perhaps you are referring more to the somewhat risque methods presented for repaying the construction and operating costs.? aka borrowing against future development along the right of ways? This can/will change a neighborhood and not always for the best (I realize not everyone wants to live in Adams Morgan or Ustreet)

1. East_H said at 9:49 am on Wednesday July 6, 2011:

   2:57 is just another troll that shows up whenever the streetcars are mentioned. They call the streetcar a debacle, a waste of time and money, and then recede into the internet and all of the thoughtful commenters scramble to rehash longstanding arguments for the streetcar, which are quite persuasive. People like 2:57 will likely never listen.

   For myself, I think the streetcars will be a boon for H and other parts of the city, but they won’t reach their full potential until they are given light priority.

   I live practically on top of the new streetcar tracks on Benning Road so needless to say, I am disappointed by the delay. I am a streetcar supporter, but I fear that DDOT isn’t giving us straight talk about the remaining problems with the hopscotch bride tie-in.

1. Steve said at 6:04 am on Wednesday March 21, 2012:

   The streetcar is a GREAT ideafor H Street, which is cut-off from easy access to metro stations. The public bus is too infrequent and confusing to casual visitors and tourists interested in enjoying H Street’s happening scene.

   Anyone against the H Street Streetcar project is plainly igonorant and probably lives in a neighboring state and drives a car everywhere. Don’t waste our time.

   Speaking of wasted time, the project managers at DDOT should be fired for letting their timelines and budget spillover. Just be honest, We won’t see streetcars until 2016 and they will cost twice as much as we expected. Williams is better than Fenty. Bring Williams back.

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