Washington Streetcar to finish in 2027

 

 

On 28 May the mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, announced that the existing budget (USD 10M/year) for the Washington Streetcar tram line, due to expire in spring 2027, would not be extended. The 2.2-mile (3.5km) so-called Starter Line, approved in 2002, and tracks laid in 2007-2011, but not opened until February 2016 at a cost of USD 200M, was always intended by the previous administration to be extended and become part of a larger network. 

 

However the current mayor has little interest in transit and says the line can easily be replaced by an electric bus. The short line, operated by RATP Dev, carries rather few passengers (about 2300/day in 2024) as express buses already duplicate the route from the back of Union Station along H Street to Oklahoma Avenue at the west end of the Anacostia bridge (plans to extend by two miles (3.2km) across the bridge to Benning Rd Metro to help revitalise a black neighbourhood were firmed up but never implemented). Fares have never been charged. 

 

The line has a mixed fleet of six 66-feet (20.12m) three-section low-floor trams, starting with three Inekon Trio built in the Czech Republic in 2009, followed in early 2014 by three United Streetcar 10T trams built in Oregon under licence from Skoda. They provide a 12-minute service 06.00-24.00 on Monday-Friday, 08.00-02.00 Saturday and 08.00-22.00 Sundays. Operations are from a ‘temporary’ depot on a former school site; the definitive depot site was supposed to be across the river in Anacostia. Washington DC had a first-generation tramway system from 1862 until 1962, notable for its use of the conduit system in the city centre.