DC's Residents Can Hop on a Streetcar in May

• April 27th 2010

by Mark Wellborn

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The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced the DC Streetcar Showcase today. The showcase, which will run from Wednesday, May 5th through Saturday, May 8th at City Center DC downtown, will give city residents the opportunity to step aboard one of the city’s most anticipated forms of public transportation. A temporary track will be set up in the parking lot of City Center for the streetcar to ride along.

From the DDOT press release:

“We are getting closer and closer to putting streetcars back on the streets of the District, and we know there are a lot of people who are just as excited about their return as we are,” said DDOT Director Gabe Klein. “This will be a great opportunity for them to see a modern streetcar up close, inside and out, and to learn more about how they will operate in the District.”

The showcase, which was originally announced at the end of 2009, certainly seems like progress for an initiative that has hit a number of bumps along the way, including most recently protests from city preservationists that the overhead electrical wires needed to operate the cars are illegal.

The master plan for the streetcar is a total of eight routes including a line along H Street NE where the track work has already begun. Lines will eventually also run along 7th Street and Georgia Avenue, and Minnesota Avenue between Anacostia and the Minnesota Avenue Metro.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc_residents_can_hop_on_a_streetcar_in_may/2015.