DDOT unveils streetcar funding plan

The D.C. Department of Transportation has identified nearly $200 million to build and operate its first two streetcar lines, one serving H Street NE and the other, Anacostia — the start of a network that may one day run 37 miles across all eight D.C. wards.

DDOT on Tuesday released a plan detailing the logistics and funding, such as an $8 million annual operating subsidy, of the earliest streetcar service. Council Chairman Vincent Gray had stipulated in the 2011 budget that DDOT must develop concrete plans if it wants $34.5 million set aside for construction of the H Street line.

The two lines nearing launch will run from Union Station to Oklahoma Avenue NE, via the H Street/Benning Road corridor, and from the 2750 S. Capitol St. SE to the Anacostia Metro Station. Both, DDOT said, will be extended — along Benning Road NE to the Benning Road Metro station, and from the Anacostia Metro to the 11th Street Bridge.

The two, fully extended lines will cost about $194 million to build and equip. The “anticipated operating subsidy,” according to DDOT, will be $7.9 million per year, with an estimated 3 percent increase annually — roughly $80 per hour of operation. The project is expected to create 200 jobs.

The streetcar “would cost roughly the same as Metrobus but provide higher capacity and a higher-quality ride,” the report states. The service will operate Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to midnight, Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The Anacostia line will use only one car, running in 15-minute loops “due to the relatively limited demand for service in the existing corridor,” DDOT said. The H Street line will run a 10-minute circuit with at least three cars, if not more. DDOT considers that line’s success as critical to the burgeoning H Street corridor.

“The corridor needs new transportation services for residents and workers within the District that will connect activity centers, facilitate intermodal transfer opportunities, and relieve crowded Metrorail and Metrobus lines,” the report reads. “The corridor also serves an area that the District has targeted for commercial and residential redevelopment.”


DDOT is proposing to build a maintenance facility at the western abutment to the H Street Underpass. It will turn its 66-foot-long, eight-foot-wide, 11-foot-tall cars around at First Street NE and the H Street Underpass on the western end, and in the Benning Road median on the eastern end.

The initial segments of both lines are fully funded, assuming the council releases the last $34.5 million.

To fund the future extensions, DDOT is pursuing federal dollars and proposing to tap into the revenue stream that it currently uses to pay down the debt service on bonds that funded the original Metrorail system. That debt, according to DDOT, will expire in the next four years.
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Read more: DDOT unveils streetcar funding plan | Washington Business Journal


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