July 26, 2007
Transit on Thursday: Trolleys and Tribulations Edition
But let's face it. Though it's among the nation's best and most extensive transit systems, Metro is just not very well-designed for travel within the city. The rail network's hub and spoke design is clearly geared toward suburban commuters. The bus system struggles to play a dual role with its long, straight commuter lines and winding neighborhood routes. The result is that many areas of the District are fairly isolated from significant transit access. Spotty bus service and no rail service affect both affluent areas like Georgetown and Chevy Chase, and less well off sections of the city such as Trinidad and much of Southeast.
What's more, as the city continues to grow, the demands commuters place on Metro will continue to grow, further frustrating local neighborhood travel. The Silver Line extension to Dulles, for example, is great for folks in far-off Tysons, Reston, and Herdon. It'll give them a much-need transit option, and help relieve congestion on suburban roads and highways. But it'll also dump a significant number of riders into downtown Orange Line stations, making local Metro travel increasingly more complicated.
D.C. needs another public transit option that is focused on providing local neighborhood service -- an option like streetcars.
Photo by Telstar Logistics
Streetcars are a relatively inexpensive way to provide top-notch local transit service that pulls from the best features of both bus and rail. Their slower pace and frequent stops are perfectly in sync with a resident who needs to pick up groceries, visit the doctor, or make a run to the hardware store. Discrete routes along metal tracks and a distinctive appearance integrates a streetcar line into a neighborhood in a way that makes a bus route seem generic. This can create economic development and neighborhood character that the S or X Metrobus lines could only dream of.
The benefits of streetcars have been clear to District transportation officials for a while now. Working from the city's emerging development patterns, they've planned a network of seven lines that fill in the gaps that Metrorail leaves and Metrobus cannot adequately serve. Looking at their plans, it's not hard to imagine how streetcar service would round out D.C.'s transit system. Going cross-town from Northwest to Northeast would be a cinch. Much of Northeast, including H Street, Benning Road, and Minnesota Avenue, would be connected with Union Station. American University students would finally get a direct transit link, and the two wards east of the river would be connected to each other along a northeast-southwest direction that makes a lot of sense. Though the details are up in the air, and funding is not yet especially forthcoming, the streetcar network envisioned by DDOT has real potential to increase residential mobility, reduce car usage and congestion, and open up new areas of the city to business and development.
That's why we found it odd when Examiner transportation guru Steve Eldridge took a recent trip to New Orleans as an opportunity slam the streetcar idea as an inconsequential novelty.
...on first blush these trolleys seem to serve a very similar purpose as the Circulator buses. They carry a large number of out-of-towners on a fix route through a busy business district for one set price... It occurs to me...that the Washington region has accomplished what it set out to do and has in fact replicated the service of the trolley with the D.C. Circulator. The question yet to be answered is whether that is enough and what else a trolley such as the one down here in Na’ Lins can provide.That opinion stoked quite a bit of controversy. Eldridge gave a sampling of reader responses later that week, with one reader suggesting Eldridge look to Portland, Oregon's famed streetcars for a better idea of what such a system could offer. Other letters holding Portland up as a model followed (some more forcefully than others, apparently), and Eldridge took umbrage.
My goal is not to defend or promote any one system over the other. I thought it might be interesting to look into the trolley system since I was going to be in the town for other reasons. I am certain that there are wonderful examples of trolleys in Europe as well in Portland. Sometimes those who advocate for one position or another do so with such passion that they forget things like being polite and accepting of other person’s positions.
The local chapter of the Sierra Club, which is currently pressing the District to move forward on their streetcar plans with all due haste, was not pleased with Eldridge either. In a letter to the Examiner, the Club points to some of those "wonderful examples" which Eldridge allows for, asserting that in D.C., streetcars would be far more than "...a nostalgic toy for moving tourists."
However, just as D.C. isn't New Orleans or Portland, neither are we Toronto or Melbourne or San Francisco. While we can learn lessons from the success of other streetcar systems, ultimately, we need to evaluate our own city's needs and decide whether streetcars make sense. Building a quality network would require a serious commitment (and investment) from the city. On the other hand, the neighborhoods newly linked by an added transit option could definitely help the city achieve its much-vaunted goal of attracting 100,000 new residents by 2013. And as the Sierra Club notes, it would also help ensure that those 100,000 residents wouldn't come along with 100,000 new cars.
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Forget streetcars, build municipal parking garages and encourage people to drive. Driving in DC is not as bad as people make it out to be, I can beat any bus at any time of day and can beat the Metro (when you factor in waiting time) at night. Driving a car as an adult living in a major city is a reasonable and responsible thing to do. Begging the government to build you a streetcar is not.
The streetcar in Portland is not so great. It serves areas that were already served by bus, which I'm guessing was why it was funded entirely by private money. In my experience it was usually slower than walking.
where do things currently stand with the streetcar proposals? are they just waiting on funding, or are there further hurdles?
Sounds great. Who's gonna pay for it?
Major problem you're going to have is the nimby crowd who doesn't want their streets torn up.
And once you've dealt with that, you then have to deal with dumb urban planner ideas like having the H Street Streetcar terminate nowhere near Union Station, so you gotta walk blocks to get to the subway.
In spite of all this, streetcars are coming to DC eventually. I just hope it doesn't end up like Baltimore's light rail, that basically exists solely to connect Timonium with downtown. The San Fran model seems to work best: cars, busses, streetcars, trolleys, and electric busses that run off the streetcar grid. DC needs a helluva lot more options than busses that are never on time, gridlocked cars, and a hole in the ground.
A streetcar line from Dupont, through Adams Morgan, and into Mount Pleasant, would be great. It'd tie two major neighborhoods- Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant- into Dupont's Metro system.
And the old trolly round-about is still there...
"A streetcar line from Dupont, through Adams Morgan, and into Mount Pleasant, would be great."
No, it would be stupid. There are already Metro Stations in those neighborhoods and bus lines that run through them.
The "Circulator" bus routes are a total failure and it is rumored that the buses may be sold to another city -- so DC is going to dig up its streets and fill them with rail ruts as part of some expensive new boondoggle??? (To compete with an existing bus system.) Get real. The city can't afford it and it would never generate enough revenue or ridership to justify it. Who dreams these crazy schemes up?
#3 - Light rail lines are in various stages of planning for different neighborhoods. I believe the Anacostia Line connecting Anacostia Metro and Bolling AFB is the furthest along. The link I cited above refers to a different Anacostia line down MLK boulevard. The H Street line is supposed to break ground this year. The idea is to eventually link these various lines together, so you could concievably go from Anacostia to Georgetown via surface rail.
There is some rumbling about moving funds from the Anacostia project to the SW Waterfront project; I think that's what's holding up those first rail lines from being started.
One running from Arlington Cemetery Metro up Constitution to Union Station would help out greatly in moving tourist above ground during rush hour, and help out the blue/orange line when they implode when the silver line opens.
If you're willing to download DC's bloated 3meg .pdf file, you'll see that the streetcars are modelled after the Circulator busses. See, if it doesn't work as a bus, it will DEFINITELY work as a streetcar, because it costs more, and that means its better.
One running from Arlington Cemetery Metro up Constitution to Union Station would help out greatly in moving tourist above ground during rush hour, and help out the blue/orange line when they implode when the silver line opens.
And how does it get accross the Potomac? A new bridge? Only a couple of hundred mil. A line along Memorial Bridge? And ruin one of the great entrance ways into DC (not to mention ruin a part of Arlington Cemetary)? The TR bridge?
Total pie in the sky stuff.
#5- yes, but there is also the 42 bus which accomplishes exactly that. And in my experience it's pretty reliable.
What we really need is some kind of bus/streetcar/SOMETHING between Dupont and the northeastern end of Columbia Heights/Petworth. The H1 bus is great but it only runs at rush hour...and even that is down on Columbia Rd.
Actually CSX is holding up the Anacostia line. The original proposal was to run the line along the abandoned line to Blue Plains (closed after 9/11 when it was decided that shipped massive amounts of chlorine by rail was a bad idea), but CSX asked for way too much money. So DC started the process of forcing them to hand it over. Running the lines on city streets is just a bluff to make CSX lower their price.
The ICC is displacing the Trolley Museum in Montgomery County. Some effort was made to move those still functioning cars to DC's streets to make them a moving museum (at a much lower cost). MoCo put the kabosh on it. Way to think regionally. The Smithsonion has a streetcar sitting in a warehouse in Suitland perhaps that could be brought out of mothballs.
Driving in DC is a bad as we think. Code Orange air quality days, gas above $3 a gallon, thousands of deaths per year. That sounds pretty bad.
@11. Memorial Bridge is clearly wide enough (6 lanes wide with wide side walks). It can spare a lane or two and a little sidewalk space. I am interested in what your definition of a street car is?
I recall reading a study of the St. Louis light rail system. Although the initial capital expenditures were much higher than for equivalent amount of busses, the longterm maintenance costs were much lower. Also, the lifespan of a rail car was much longer than for a bus. So over a ten-year lifespan, you're spending close to 20 percent less than you would on busses.
The streetcar line used to run across Key Bridge. Roslyn used to be the turnaround point where you could transfer to the streetcar that ran to Mount Vernon.
Those nimbys are the same ones that keep electing Barry to office, I doubt they have the ability to plan for the future and realize consequences for their actions.
RJ - Check the .pdf file. The streetcars DC will get are farking huge, nothing like what is pictured above. You'd have a hard time getting two of them across Memorial Bridge without taking out two lanes of traffic. And I'm pretty sure it would have to be majorly retrofitted to handle the weight and banging of steel on rail. A lot different from rubber on asphault.
I think you guys are all a little too cynical about this project. I feel like the addition of streetcars will help take cars off the road and will make intracity travel much easier. In Amsterdam, which is about 20 sq miles larger than DC, they have a plethora of street car lines, a subway system, and buses. The street cars are very fast and efficient and are used mainly for intracity travel by pretty much everyone, while the subway is geared more towards suburban commute. While I was there I found the buses to be a non factor. Anyway while driving is pretty easy in DC, parking can often be a hassle and I for one would probably rather take a streetcar around town than drive myself and spend half an hour looking for parking at my destination.
Unless there are a decent amount of dedicated lanes, no bus or streetcar solution will work well during rush hour. If the streetcar or bus has to deal with bumper-to-bumper traffic and stops every block or two during rush hour, there will be no time incentive for people to switch to public transportation because it will take twice as long as driving. I like the idea of streetcars, but a bus with dedicated lanes would be a far cheaper option, plus existing equipment could be used.
ME: Let the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the engineers work that out, and when they are done we can enjoy the pleasant ride to mall in 2056. I only get paid for the idea, let the others be crucify for the details.
Some good reading on this at: www.dctrolley.org/
I can't believe anyone seriously thinks streetcars will solve any transportation problems. They serve exactly the same function as existing bus routes, which apparently aren't even needed now on these routes, since they pass by largely vacant most of the time.
What is it about a streetcar that is better than a bus, other than the tourist-pleasing nifty factor? They run on the same streets as buses. They stop at the same traffic lights as buses, and are just as slow. And they add a whole new element of horror the the DC traffic situation - for those places where they might run in the median on large roads (like 16th Street), you have one more thing in to look for (where there SHOULDN'T be anything) when making a left turn. There (used to be, when the streetcar was runnning) streetcar/car crashes in N.O. all the time, as unsuspecting tourists fail to look behind them when turning left off of St. Charles street.
Forget the streetcar. What DC really could benefit from is a monorail. Come on now, all together! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
Plans have been in the works for a similar project in Arlington along Columbia Pike and it should/could serve as a good model for any potential projects in DC. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/29/AR2006042901271.html
http://www.arlingtonva.us/NewsReleases/scripts/ViewDetail.asp?Index=2011
This seems to be best suited for long stretches in specific corridors throughout town, such as H St, NE, G'town, etc. And it may even have an added benefit of keeping drivers out of intersections on red lights if 10 tons of steel might crush them...
#6- I must have missed the Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant Metro stations. Could this be, perhaps, because the stations are not actually *in* those neighborhoods? For example, the Adams Morgan metro station is at the zoo...
Stupid to you *pthhppp*
The advantages of streetcars:
1. Lower operating costs
2. People who won't ride buses will ride them
3. A well defined fixed route is easier to understand and attracts more route-side investment
4. Electric powered streetcars pollute less than gasoline, diesel or natural gas powered buses
5. Streetcars are faster and smoother
6. They increase through-put capacity more than buses.
So I'm all for it - whether it's the longer light-rail style cars that DC is planning or single car streetcars.
I'd like a line that ran from the baseball stadium past Navy Yard, the Eastern market metro and the Capitol to Union Station. 3 miles or so - 3 Metro stations on 4 lines, plus four major destinations.
"They serve exactly the same function as existing bus routes, which apparently aren't even needed now on these routes, since they pass by largely vacant most of the time."
Do you even know what you're talking about?? Peeps are packed like sardines on the X2 line serving H Street and Benning Road ALL the time.
Thank you, #25, for answering all the commenters who think there is no difference between a bus line and a streetcar line.
I naively thought these advantages were pretty widely understood by now. That we are still having this discussion tells me the cynics above might sadly be right.
#12, #5 here. (and #24)
- No argument from me on the current efficacy of the 42 bus but appeal and throughput, and therefor ridership levels and capacity, would be greatly increased by a trolley system.
And, though I focused on a N/S axis, obviously a E/W one between other neighborhoods could be useful. It just seems obvious to me that it should build it out from the existing Metro Core, and that Dupont should be a key link.
wow, #24....
anyway, adams morgan is, as you said, served by the woodley park station - which is a 10 minute walk, tops, from the neighborhood, and mt. pleasant is served by the columbia heights station, which is similarly close. does being "served by a metro station" mean a half-block walk to you?
it sounds to me like #6 was only pointing out the obvious - both neighborhoods are close to metro stations AND served by a bus that connects them to dupont. streetcars sound pretty freaking redundant to me.
#5 here again.
#12, check out the GA Streetscape plan for dedicated rapid-transit bus lanes. It has them. What's generally not as widely known is that transportation planners spec such dedicated lanes as first-phase place-holders for future light rail/trolley systems. If I recall correctly, that's planned for about 2030. This information is all online. See:
ddot.dc.gov/ddot/cwp/view,a,1249,q,639152,ddotNav_GID,1754,ddotNav,|34241|.asp
You may not get a link to Dupont, but you'll get one to U Street and further South.
1) A little - $90 vs $135 per RSH (this from a streetcar pusher - www.lightrailnow.org - so I have to assume it's biased in their favor, if at all). This does not consider the huge capital investment needed for streetcars vs. buses; I'd love to see a 20-year amortization that considers ALL costs.
2) I'll give you that - but if people have a perfectly viable transportation option and don't choose to use it, can you honestly define that as a "need"?
3) I don't think DC really has a problem attracting investment right now.
4) Wrong. Don't forget that you need to burn something to make electricity in the first place -- in this area, as most of the country, it's made by burning coal or oil. Even more importantly, up to 2/3 of electricity generated is lost during transmission from the power plant. Natural gas that is burned where it is needed is MUCH more efficient per unit of work - and produces proportionally less emissions - than electricity is.
5) Faster? Really? If they stop just as often, and share the road with cars, then that makes no sense. If they don't stop as often, then you can't compare them to existing bus routes: you must compare them to a COMPARABLE bus route that would have the same stops as your proposed streetcar.
6) Huh?
I remaain far from convinced.
We need a monorail! Monorail systems put Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook on the map.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't streetcars and trolleys two totally different concepts? Isn't a Trolly something that has its own lane and does not interfere with traffice (and vice versa) and a Streetcar (like the ones in Baltimore) something that has a rail on the street itself but shares the same lanes as the rest of traffic?
(I didn't do any research before I posted this, so please indeed tell me if I'm wrong about this)
I'm a transit advocate and a car-free DC resident, but I think that a 50-mile street car system for the district is a waste of money.
To echo a previous poster, an enhanced surface bus network with streetcar-like levels of of service can accomplish the same goals without all the extra infrastructure expense.
Streetcars will never be faster than buses unless they get dedicated right-of-way, which can be given to buses just as easily.
And in exchange for the reduced (local) pollution, you get ugly overhead wires crisscrossing the city. Plus, the electricity for the streetcar is generated at some coal-fired plant somewhere, probably upwind from here.
Articulated (double-long or accordion style) buses can carry over 100 passengers per vehicle. That's close to the planned capacity for these streetcars.
What we need is smart investments in guaranteed right-of-way for our existing fleet of bus lines, and a migration to clean-burning CNG or clean-diesel/hybrid vehicles.
#29- If your standard is a 10 minute walk to one side of a neighborhood that spans 8-10 blocks than, yes, I suppose those neighborhoods have Metro Service. Kinda like Dupont residents could use the Farragut North, Foggy Bottom, or U Street Stations.
Yes, to everything that guest #25 said, plus:
7. Quieter. Buses are loud, especially when accelerating. Not so streetcars.
Also, ME, the Inekon Trio (currently being tested for DC) is a few inches narrower than the old PCC type streetcar picture above.
I support reintroducing streetcars to link various DC neighborhoods, especially those currently underserved by other forms of public transit, but the system should be integrated w/ metro and buses so that we can more seamlessly move around the city w/o having to resort to driving.
>7. Quieter. Buses are loud, especially when
> accelerating. Not so streetcars.
Streetcars QUIET? Are you kidding me? Have you ever been to San Francisco? What planet are you living on?
Look, #37- the SF "streetcars" (really cablecars) are mechanically not at all like what is being considered here. The big difference is that the SF cablecars use an underground cable system to pull them along. Mechanically, the SF cablecars are more like ski-lifts than anything else.
SF's other streetcars *are* quiet.
what kills me is that the 7 corridors called out on the transit page (citation: http://www.dctransitfuture.com/corridors/ ) are exactly routes already covered by buses. street cars need to exist in a niche where buses can't.
despite what some say, the portland street car did, in fact, do this. the street car connected NW portland with downtown portland. these two areas were extremely close but not quite close enough to walk. as a result they were completely ignored by the bus routes.
the street car came in connecting downtown portland and NW portland with the Pearl District in the middle helping revitalize the pearl as well as providing to-and-from traffic for both destinations. this is a short niche trip. now the street car is being expanded to the SW waterfront development which will also surely be a wild success.
what DC needs to do is make its close neighborhoods closer. a street car will do nothing for SE or silver spring. sorry, dreamers, but it won't. it could however help revitalize H street NE or con