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Articles
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| Logistics for H Street streetcars pondered |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
The city recently broke ground on the highly anticipated H Street streetscape project, which includes tracks and electrical-infrastructure work for the corridor’s streetcar system. But questions still remain about funding for the cars, where service will begin and how the system will be powered.
Northeast Capitol Hill advisory neighborhood commissioner Joe Fengler, who has been a forceful advocate throughout the streetscape process, said he wants to see a streetcar break the ribbon when the estimated three-year project is complete.
“If we think we’ll need more money, let’s get it,” Fengler said, adding that the city set aside funding for streetcars before shifting some of it to cover higher-than-expected streetscape costs.
Fengler, who helped push the District Department of Transportation to do streetcar work during the streetscape project, said he is working with Ward 6 D.C. Council member Tommy Wells to identify all the unfunded costs for the streetcar line in order to get the money written into next year’s city budget.
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Wells’ spokesperson Charles Allen said the Transportation Department has allocated some money for streetcars, but the agency is waiting to order all the cars at once because costs would be lower that way.
If the streetcars are to be ready by the end of streetscape work, time is a factor -- the cars must be custom-made and shipped from the Czech Republic.
But Transportation Department spokesperson Karyn LeBlanc said in an e-mail to The Voice that the agency expects streetcar service to begin in five to seven years, at least two years after the projected completion of the H Street project.
Another detail about the streetcar line yet to emerge is where the western terminus will be located. The 3-mile line will run between the west end of the H Street corridor and the Minnesota Avenue Metro station across the Anacostia River, and eventually connect to a planned Anacostia streetcar line.
But it’s still unclear whether the line will connect to Union Station or stop east of the “Hopscotch Bridge,” which spans the railroad tracks behind the station.
Fengler and other community stakeholders have touted the advantages of running the line all the way west to Union Station. It would not only make riding it more convenient, but also would bring more visitors from outside the city to H Street, they say, by creating a physical link with several regional rail and bus lines.
And there is the question of how the streetcars will be powered. The National Capital Planning Commission, which reviews regional federal projects and the impact of development on the District’s historical plans, opposes overhead streetcar power lines, saying the federal law prohibits overhead cables in much of the District’s downtown areas.
At the Jan. 31 groundbreaking ceremony for the H Street streetscape and Benning Road Starburst Plaza projects, Transportation Department director Emeka Moneme said the agency was considering alternatives to overhead power lines.
LeBlanc said streetcar systems in Bordeaux and Nice, France, and Rotterdam, Netherlands, are not powered by an overhead wires.
But Allen said overhead wires are still an option, despite the planning commission’s opposition.
The District’s ultimate vision for streetcars is to move beyond the planned H Street and Anacostia lines, creating a more-localized rail system to complement Metrorail. A common argument for investing in streetcars is that they do more to spur revitalization and encourage public-transit use than buses, according to smart-growth advocates and urban planners.
In Portland, Ore., Office of Transportation spokesperson Cheryl Kuck said that city’s streetcar system has surpassed ridership expectations and has helped spur significant economic revitalization.
Kuck said about 10,000 people ride Portland’s streetcars every day -- about triple the ridership originally expected. She also said that since 1997, about $2.5 billion of development, 7,248 residential units and 4,625,000 square feet of commercial space has been developed along the streetcar lines.
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Posted on Feb 20, 2008 16:04pm.
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