Photo by philliefan99.
At a D.C. Council hearing yesterday, the District Department of Transportation shared some unsettling updates to the development of the city’s new streetcar system. A bit more than a year away from its scheduled debut, the first line along H Street and Benning Road NE is close to veering off the rails, it seems.
On TBD, John Hendel notes that the grim-sounding update delivered yesterday by DDOT director Terry Bellamy prompted Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who chairs the committee that oversees the agency, to say things appear to be “muddling along,” while Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) said Bellamy’s report “undermines confidence” that the streetcar system will get up and running as vibrantly as the District claims.
The big issue at yesterday’s hearing was a glaring deficit of the streetcars themselves. DDOT’s plan for the H Street/Benning Road line called for five or six trolleys—so far its procured three, which arrived in town more than two years ago from the Czech Republic. The District had planned to purchase two more cars from an Oregon manufacturer for $8.7 million, but that deal was called off last month after protests from Inekon, the Czech company that built the original three. (Cheh put a hold on the contract late last year.)
Even if DDOT reverses course and winds up buying more cars it takes time for the streetcars to be built, tested, shipped and prepared for deployment—18 months according to the department’s procurement officer. But, as Hendel notes, even if DDOT put in a new order with Inekon today, a year and a half from now is more like late 2013 rather than the mid-2013 projection the city is sticking with.
On WAMU this morning, Patrick Madden suggested that without enough cars, the new system might not do commuters much good: “Will it be a viable transportation option, or just a novelty ride for tourists?” he asked.
Judging from what Wells told Bellamy at the hearing, the latter seems quite possible, and quite unappealing.
“If you start it with only two or three cars, then I’m not with you,” Wells said, adding that beginning with just enough equipment to ferry around tourists is “kind of one of my worst fears coming true.”
