The Streetcar Man Cometh

A mode of transit that I find myself using almost every day is the DC Streetcar. The streetcar runs along H Street and Benning Road Northeast from Union Station to Oklahoma Avenue and back. This two mile segment is the first portion of a cross-city line intended to connect the Benning Road Metrorail station with Georgetown, and that is intended to be the first portion of a 37 mile citywide streetcar system. 

The DC Streetcar has a long and tumultuous history, beginning with initial plans to use abandoned railroad tracks in Southeast Washington to construct a line from the Anacostia Metrorail station to the Minnesota Avenue Metrorail station. A portion of this line and a carhouse was constructed in Southeast, but the project then stalled due to owership issues with the right of way. It was decided to then build and operate the initial segment of the crosstown line on H Street, which after ten years of design, construction, political fighting, analysis, and testing finally opened in 2016.

While on H Street, the streetcar operates in the outer two travel lanes. While this facilitates ease of boarding, it means that the streetcar is at the mercy of those attempting to parallel park and make deliveries on H Street, and holdups often occur.

On Benning Road however, the streetcar tracks are in the center of the road and stations are in the median. I feel that a similar setup could be used going forward, where “Islands” for stops are created in between lanes of traffic.

The extension of the line eastbound to Benning Road Station is expected to begin construction in 2018 or 2019 and be open by 2020 or 2021. The westbound extension to Georgetown is contingent on the H Street bridge replacement as part of the Burnham Place development.

The DC Streetcar uses two types of cars. The 100 series were built by Inekton in the Czech Republic and were ordered in the early 2000s for the Anacostia line. The 200 series were built by United Streetcar in Oregon. Both types of cars have about the same interior style and are in the same paint scheme, although the paint on the 100 series is starting to fade.

Eventually, DDOT still hopes to complete the originally planned 22 mile priority system and after that, the whole 37 mile streetcar network. The next line to be constructed will either be a north-south line along Georgia Avenue from Silver Spring to Downtown, or a revised version of the Anacostia line along private right of way from the Anacostia Metro to the Minnesota Avenue Metro.