It’s been a while since we’ve posted such a sweet piece of transit porn; so, streetcar advocates, feel free to keep drooling as you read the rest of this text. To the right (and in more detail here), you’ll find DDOT’s comprehensive idea for an expanded streetcar network, based on the existing plans for H Street NE and Anacostia.
The District’s streetcar initiative has taken some big steps recently, after being frozen in time for what felt like an eternity: diverting traffic for installation work on H Street NE and South Capitol Street, and the actual laying of tracks for the Anacostia section of the project. But from the looks of things, DDOT is hardly settling for such minor victories.
The agency is holding meetings in each ward over a span of 15 days to disseminate and discuss with the public the findings of its Transit Future study, a large part of which is this comprehensive streetcar plan for the entire District. ReadysetDC took in last Thursday’s meeting in Ward 6, and reports back on his impressions:
Given the slow progress that’s been made over the last few years and the increasingly low expectations, the new plan is nothing less than inspiring. It’s clear from the new map filled with colorful lines snaking all over the District that DDOT means business: Streetcars are coming back to DC, and in a big way. Hearing DDOT lay out the new plan, one gets the impression that their witnessing the very first steps in the creation of another game-changing system, much like the system revealed 40 years ago that we have come to know as Metro.
Certainly high praise, but one can see where he’s coming from. The vision presented at the open house is one of ultimate connectivity; streetcars filling in so many places where Metrorail just doesn’t reach and Metrobus service is hit-or-miss, and supplementing other areas where transit is already available. Of course, it won’t be cheap — together, all three phases of the dynamic streetcar plan would cost $1.5 billion.
The next open house is scheduled for tomorrow at the Columbia Heights Education Campus at 3101 16th Street, NW; a full schedule of meetings can be found here. If you can’t make it out to any of the meetings, all the presented information can be found at the streetcar page of DDOT’s website.
