In today’s Metro section, The Washington Post published readers’ memories of D.C.’s old streetcars, which operated until 1962.  Readers described how they used streetcars to get to work, school and entertainment like Glen Echo amusement park.  One reader described how he met his future wife on a streetcar ride in the 1950’s and how they still joke about owing a debt of gratitude to the owner of D.C. Transit, which operated the old streetcars, for bringing them together.  Others commented on how streetcars were “convenient, fairly quiet, comfortable, and cheap” or “dependable, safe and reasonable.”  One lamented that “it was a shame to see it eliminated.”

We now have an opportunity to return streetcars to D.C.’s streets so that D.C. residents can make new memories riding streetcars across the city.

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced in a press release yesterday that DDOT will accelerate work on the Benning Road Great Streets Initiative project between 16th Street and Oklahoma Avenue NE so that all streetscape work — including installation of streetcar tracks for the H Street-Benning Road streetcar line — will be completed by December 2009 rather than early 2010 as originally scheduled.  The Great Streets streetscape work on H Street NE will continue, and streetcar tracks will be installed on that segment toward the end of that project.

Now, if DDOT could just figure out how to resolve the issue of how the streetcars will be powered and order the streetcars needed to operate the H Street-Benning Road line.

On Tuesday, The Overhead Wire, a pro-electrified transit blog, published comments arguing that Congress should repeal a century-old federal law prohibiting the use of overhead wires for streetcars, freeing “the District of Columbia to operate clean, green, efficient, electric surface mass transit on any of its streets.” 

The commenter goes on to argue that a single overhead wire — the type D.C. plans to use — should be permitted throughout the District:

“Until more reliable forms of power become available, the best system for more than 100 years to power streetcars is from a simple almost invisible overhead wire. This is how more than 400 other electric surface transit systems operate around the world and within other US cities. However, Congress banned overhead wires in parts of D.C. more than 100 years ago stifling electric surface transit progress and ultimately killing it almost 50 years ago.

It’s time for Congress to take a leadership role and change that law to allow streetcars to use single simple, non-polluting almost invisible wire above their tracks and return to all of D.C. When the law was passed more than 100 years ago it was well intended to remove masses of utility wire from city streets. Utilities can bury their wires but transit cannot. The old underground conduit system used by the now abandoned D.C. streetcar network is too expensive and difficult to maintain or reinstall and not at all desirable.”

The District government plans to build and operate an extensive streetcar network in Washington, but the National Capital Planning Commission has resisted the use of overhead wires to power streetcars, citing an 1889 federal law prohibiting overhead wires in the downtown area falling within the historic part of Washington laid out by Pierre L’Enfant.  The initial streetcar line planned for Anacostia falls outside the overhead wire prohibition area; however, a portion of the streetcar line planned for H Street and Benning Road N.E. (and other lines to be built later) would be affected by the overhead wire prohibition.  The District Department of Transportation has not yet stated publicly how it plans to overcome this obstacle.

In an article in The Washington Post on Thursday (4/2), Lena Sun reports that for a variety or reasons, the District Department of Transportation’s plans to complete the Anacostia streetcar line have been delayed.  Instead of finishing construction of the line in late 2009, the project is now estimated to be completed by 2012.

One can only wonder what effect this delay will have on the streetcar line planned for the H Street-Benning Road NE corridor, but it is certainly not good news that the first streetcar line has faced so many difficulties and now apparently a three-year delay.  One can only hope that DDOT works out the bugs in Anacostia, learns from the experience and rolls out future streetcar lines more quickly and efficiently.

In a recent meeting with several Sierra Club transit activists, Gabe Klein, new Director of the District Department of Transportation, said that he wants to bring the three streetcars owned by the District government to Washington to show them off even before the streetcar tracks are in place.  He suggested they might put them on display at Union Station where they could be visible to the public as a way to get D.C. residents excited about streetcars before they actually go into service.  D.C.’s streetcars have remained in Ostrava, Czech Republic, were they were manufactured by Inekon Trams Company.

In another development, a Sierra Club volunteer recently found on the Internet and obtained permission for us to post photos of D.C.’s streetcars in the Czech Republic.

Photo of D.C. streetcar in Ostrava, Czech Republic (taken by Michal Rusek, a Czech transit enthusiast, and available on his website).

Photo of D.C. streetcar on a test track in Ostrava, Czech Republic (taken by Michal Rusek and available on his website).

Up until these photos surfaced recently, the only known photo of a D.C. streetcar appeared on DDOT’s website.

DDOT promotional photo of a D.C. streetcar in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

In the process of searching further, the following photo of what appears to be one of D.C.’s streetcars during manufacturing appears on Inekon’s website (although the photo file name indicates this is a Seattle streetcar, the tell-tale D.C. paint scheme seems to indicate otherwise).

The Atlas Performing Arts Center has joined the H Street-Benning Road Streetcar Alliance, a coalition of community groups, environmental organizations, businesses and other organizations that support the streetcar line planned for H Street and Benning Road NE.  The Atlas, a community-based performing arts center with four theatres, three dance studios and rehearsal space, is located in a historic movie theatre complex on H Street.  It serves as home to a diverse group of resident arts organizations, including theatre and dance companies, symphony orchestras, choral groups and arts education programs.

Even prior to formally joining the streetcar alliance, The Atlas Peforming Arts Center has been supportive by donating meeting space to the alliance for its meetings.  The most recent meeting with Councilmember Wells was attended by several Atlas staff, including Executive Director Patrick Stewart, who has worked hard to bring better transportation options, including a new shuttle, to the H Street corridor as a temporary measure while the community awaits the streetcar line.

Speaking before the H Street-Benning Road Streetcar Alliance on Monday night, Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), a leading advocate for the H Street streetcar line, updated members of the community on the streetcar project.  He began his remarks by telling the audience that streetcars are a “transformative investment” for communities and one that he believes will be important for the H Street corridor.  As part of the Great Streets Initiative streetscape project that is underway, the H Street-Benning Road corridor’s streetscape will be completely redesigned and rebuilt, incorporating streetcar tracks, over the next 2-3 years, but the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) must resolve a number of additional issues before the streetcar line can begin operating there.  One of the key issues that remains to be answered by the city is how the streetcars will be powered — by overhead wires, an underground power source or possibly batteries.

Councilmember Wells described his travels in Switzerland where he investigated their transit systems.  He highlighted Basel, Switzerland, an old city dating to Roman times – calling it one of the most beautiful cities he has ever seen — where the city has chosen streetcars (also called trams) over buses, and they power their streetcar network using overhead wires (as do the vast majority of cities with streetcars around the world).  Wells urged those who are skeptical about using overhead wires in D.C. to look at streetcar systems in other cities that use minimal overhead wires.  He allowed that the city government could put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking proposals to power D.C.’s future streetcars without using overhead wires to see what options may exist and how much more they would cost.  However regardless of which of these options is selected, Wells stated unequivocally “I support electrified mass transit” because it is better for the environment than buses and cars. 

DC for Democracy (DC4D), an all-volunteer grassroots community of over 400 members who work for progressive change both nationally and locally, is the latest organization to sign on as a supporter and member organization of the H Street-Benning Road Streetcar Alliance. DC for Democracy’s support for improved mass transit service and community-based economic development in the H Street-Benning Road corridor is part of the group’s “Sustainable DC” campaign. The local group is the Democracy for America (DFA) affiliate in the District of Columbia.

The H Street-Benning Road Streetcar Alliance will hold its next meeting on Monday, March 2 at 7:00 pm at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H Street NE).

Our special guest will be Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, a supporter of the H Street-Benning Road streetcar project. Please join us for a dialogue about the streetcar project and what we can do to help move it forward.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissions 5B, 6A and 6C — three member organizations of the H Street-Benning Road Streetcar Alliance – have sent a letter to Freddie Fuller, Associate Director of the District Department of Transportation’s (DDOT) Mass Transit Administration, asking DDOT to hold a public meeting to explain to the community how DDOT plans to power the streetcar line planned for H Street and Benning Road NE between the Minnesota Avenue Metrorail Station (Orange Line) and Union Station (Red Line).

The letter asks DDOT to present to the community on each the following questions:

1. What options exist to power the streetcars?
2. What is the feasibility of each of these options?
3. What are the technical or legal challenges posed by each of these options?
4. Which of these power source options does DDOT intend to pursue?
5. What is DDOT’s plan to overcome any obstacles and move forward with the selected alternative?

Many are concerned that the longer these questions remain unanswered, the longer the streetcar line will be delayed. 

Some media accounts have indicated that DDOT would like to use overhead wires to power streetcars in the District but that the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has cited an act of Congress from the 1890’s as a potential obstacle to using overhead wires.