D.C. readies for streetcar return

WASHINGTON -- The clanging of streetcars hasn't been heard in the District in nearly two generations, but WTOP has learned the city's department of transportation is ready to get streetcars rolling once again.

"You will see an announcement in the next few weeks," D.C. Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein tells WTOP.

"I can tell you that we are doing some preliminary work."

DDOT is focusing on an initial streetcar line in Anacostia.

"That segment has been extended to about two miles and will stretch from a new maintenance facility on South Capitol Street to Firth Sterling Avenue, east on Howard Road, and then north on Martin Luther King Boulevard to the area of Good Hope Road," says DDOT spokesperson John Lisle.

The new Department of Homeland Security headquarters, scheduled to be built on the current campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital, would be just a stone's throw away from the line, and the streetcars would also pass right by the Anacostia Metro Station. Eventually, the plan is to run the streetcar system across the new 11th Street bridges when they are built, as well as along the H Street Corridor in Northeast.

Preliminary work scheduled to take place in Anacostia includes laying the track for the streetcars, installing poles and overhead cables to power them and building the maintenance facility. In addition, a significant street repair and upgrade project will coincide with the construction.

Fort Myer Construction Co. is handling the work on the first segment. The company specializes in asphalt, concrete, architectural paving and work related to large road, bridge and park construction projects.

This first segment is expected to cost about $25 million.

Streetcars last ran in the city in 1962, with several lines heading into and out of Maryland and a few running through Virginia as well.

DDOT has been trying to resurrect the streetcar system dating back to the agency's previous permanent Director Emeka Moneme.

The District has actually already purchased three streetcars at a cost of $10 million, but without any tracks to run them on, the cars have been held in the Czech Republic where they were manufactured.

According to DDOT, initial segments of the streetcar system could be built at a rate of one block every two weeks. Current plans call for the service to run seven days a week from 6 a.m. until midnight. The fare for the streetcar is expected to mirror that of a bus ride.

A number of other cities currently have active streetcars networks including Portland, Ore. and Memphis, Tenn., where they are credited with spurring economic development.

(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)