Photo via Office of Mayor Vince Gray
The first cars in D.C.’s forthcoming streetcar fleet are on the tracks at an Anacostia testing site, and presumably only months away from finally being put into service. Mayor Vince Gray and District Department of Transportation Director Terry Bellamy introduced the new trolleys, which finally made their way down to the District following a three-year-plus residency in Greenbelt, Md.
The first car was delivered yesterday, with a second one rolling in this morning. The third is expected to arrive tomorrow. Gray also said at a press conference that DDOT is looking to hire its first eight maintenance and operations workers for the new transit line.
If the testing phase goes according to plan, D.C.’s modern streetcar system could begin service along the H Street-Benning Road NE line this fall. But at the press conference at DDOT’s Anacostia testing and commissioning site, Gray and Bellamy said that revenue service is contingent on the federal government’s approval.
The car introduced today is one of three manufactured by the Czech firm Inekon, which delivered the streetcars in late 2009. The cars’ idling up at a Metro facility in Greenbelt continued as the opening of the streetcar line was pushed back from late 2012 to late 2013. H Street has been nearly ready for some time, with tracks laid in and elevated stations positioned on curbs. Last month, crews returned to the area to complete a turnaround area between Third Street NE and Union Station. Work resumed last month on the line’s continuation along Benning Road.
The city is also planning on building a maintenance and training facility for the streetcar line on the campus of Spingarn High School on Benning Road. The mayor’s proposed budget for the 2014 fiscal year raises the six-year outlay for the streetcar program to $400 million, and allocates a $6.2 million annual operating budget once the line is up and running.
Gray, who was also joined by Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who chairs the D.C. Council’s transportation committee, said he still expects the streetcar to begin carrying passengers by the end of the year.
