DC Streetcar, the Washington DC tram service, will finally open for passenger service on Saturday, February 27.
Originally mooted in 2003, and despite a series of delays, plans, changes and controversy, the H Street/ Benning Road Line will run Mondays to Saturdays, with fares being free for an introductory period.
“I’m proud to announce that Streetcar is ready for passenger service,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser. “I want to thank the residents of the H Street and Benning Road communities for their patience during the construction and testing of the system. As a way of saying ‘thank you,’ fares will be free on the system for an initial period of time.”
After several years with not much progress, a review by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) found that, while the system had numerous issues, there were “no fatal flaws” and the streetcar system could move forward once the issues were addressed.
Leif Dormsjo, the director of DDOT (District Department of Transportation), assembled a team of consultants and managers to fix the outstanding issues and get Streetcar up and running.
“Mayor Bowser charged my team with taking a failed Streetcar program and making it work for District residents. After years of overspending, mismanagement and lack of direction, we made it happen,” Dormsjo explained.
The result is the opening this month.
Map?
Finally we have a comfortable, non-polluting, safe, efficient form of transportation in our nation’s capitol. The next step should be to expand the system significantly to cover the areas covered by the original streetcar system removed after 1950, and to coordinate the routes with the subway system.