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District Department of Transportation director Gabe Klein is set to meet with the public tonight to provide an update on the epically delayed plans for a streetcar line along H Street NE. The project is the second of two stalled streetcar plans, the other along South Capitol Street in Anacostia. In advance of tonight's big meeting, which is being co-hosted by Advisory Neighborhood Commissions 5B, 6A and 6C, the Washington Business Journal's Jonathon O'Connell provides a preview.
As you may recall, the city actually bought three streetcars back when Anthony Williams was still mayor, but they've been cooling their heels in the Czech Republic ever since, waiting for the District to get its act together. Since then, DDOT has gone ahead and started work on laying the tracks for the two streetcar lines, but that doesn't mean there aren't still thorny planning issues to work out, especially for the H Street line, which must contend with rules that ban overhead wires inside the L'Enfant City. And the Anacostia line has its own problems.
So what should you expect to hear at tonight's meeting? O'Connell chats with Klein and nails down the promising word that the newish DDOT director is excited about streetcars. Somewhat astonishingly, 'Klein said he is “really not concerned” about funding,' and notes that he now believes U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Ray LaHood is going to come up with a pot of gold for the projects. Hmm. We'll believe that when we see it, but OK. Perhaps the most encouraging news is that chief-of-staff Scott Kubly has been tasked with heading a new management team for streetcars, which signals their priority level for Klein.
The public meeting on the H Street-Benning Road streetcar line is set for tonight at 7 p.m. at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, located at 1333 H Street NE.
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Anyone want to help me write the book on this story? It's called "A Streetcar Named Delay" ...
I think "A Streetcat Named Molly" would be more appropriate.
I maintain that the only reason DC owns streetcars is because someone gave Marion the ol hubba hubba and scored a trip to prague.
(ed note: I actually heard we got them dirt cheap because we got in on a deal with Portland, OR, a city that actually gives a damn about transit)
"Portland, OR, a city that actually gives a damn about transit"
OK, that's not fair. You've lived a very sheltered life if you think the District doesn't give a damn about transit. Compared with 95% of other cities across the country, DC's transit system is first-rate. Yeah, yeah...we had the Metro accident and bus drivers who read while changing lanes at 15th and Constitution at rush hour, but still. We've got a robust subway system, one of the best bus systems in the country, regional bus and rail networks, the Circulator line, and streetcars on the way. There are only a handful of cities in the U.S. with public transit systems more extensive than we have here.
Maybe we can send Sinclair Skinner to Prague to "work out a deal." Heh.
Well I for one am ecstatic that Mr. Klein has managed to discover Felix the Cat's Magical Bag of Goatses that pours forth gold at will to pay for billion-dollar light rail programs. Unfortunately, I still don't see how they're going to take care of that thorny "how do we f**king power this thing without overhead wires" problem, because the underground alternatives are a lawsuit waiting to happen, what with all the delightful street urchins sticking crowbars in the third rail on a dare. Kinda like Donald Trump building a 50-story skyscraper in downtown DC and dealing with that whole pesky height restriction thing at some later date. Now if he could only deal with that terrible rainbow-farting unicorn pestilence that continues to plague Swampoodle.
see you at the meeting.
mule with a spinning wheel -
only, dc doesn't actually have any money!
I wonder if someone at the meeting will be able to explain the problem with overhead wires, since H Street already -- you know -- has them. Or does the L'Enfant plan allow for only one set...
Monorail!
Monorails are so 20th century. All the cool kids ride the clean-burning Bono-rail, a veritable perpetual motion machine powered solely by his own ego.
Anyway, the Bono-rail is way too good for DC. It's more of a Bethesda kinda idea.
Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine,
Bona fide,
Electrified,
Six-car
Monorail!
Lara......
Wish I could have gone to the meeting, hope that someone at DCist was there to report an update today...
I think these streetcars are a great idea and I can't wait to see them built and running... it's unfortunate that the original streetcars were brushed aside anyway, thye should have been re-built and re-branded in the 60's to work along side the then-drawing board system we know as Metro today.
One thing is for sure, if a slight tax increase is needed--so be it--but we can't sit here like idiots funneling money into cars that are sitting in mothballs half way around the world! Let's get those cars up and running for jeebus' sake!
Does anyone else think this overhead power lines issue is a smokescreen? I have overhead lines all over my alley (albiet cable and phone) and powerlines exist in Crestwood.
If it was an issue of looks, then the cable and copper lines need to be buried immediately in my alley. Otherwise it's a smokescreen for not spending the money.
Well, I'm not sure where you live, but Crestwood is outside of the original L'Enfant city and thus would not be in the restricted space.
Since streetcars used to run through the L'Enfant core until the 1960s, how was it done back then?
They used underground conduits, which have for some reason become impractical between the 1960s and today. Just another excuse to delay this project, as far as I'm concerned.
Streetcars ran on an overhead power system in the 1880s before eventually moving to an underground power conduit system. While ugly, the overhead system was more reliable than the underground one, because the latter was subject to greater wear and the corrosive effects of the weather. With the amount of salt DC dumps on the roads today, I can't imagine an underground power system being terribly reliable.
There's some experimentation being done on inductive power systems that would suit DC's needs quite nicely, but a practical application is probably many years away.
My concern is that a hybrid underground downtown/overhead wires uptown system would only combine the worst traits of both systems. If Congress refuses overhead wires downtown, screw em. Put the wires up everyplace else and give those neighborhoods the streetcars. K Street businesses dont' want their precious streets dug up for light rail? Screw them, too. Send the line up Florida Avenue across town (that was the boundary of the L'enfant plan, right?). Instead of waiting around for technology to catch up, use the proven system in neighborhoods that actually want the streetcars and aren't subject to some antequated Congressional dick-tum.
See what I did there? It's called "a pun."