Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Common Demominator: Streetcars
Via the listserv comes this Common Denominator article on H Street streetcars. In the article, Commissioner Joe Fengler makes the hopeful (and somewhat ambitious, but then they are laying tracks this fall) prediction that H Street will have streetcars running in 24 months. That sounds like a pretty fast moving, but not impossible if the city is really motivated, schedule.
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Joe does, however, correctly point out that implementation of the next phase, purchasing the cars and putting them into service, all depends on funding. I think he's saying that logistically it's possible to be up and running in that 24 month timeframe, assuming, among other things, that funding for the cars is established. That funding is the big X factor, and we should be thinking strategically about it now as the first phase moves forward. Momentum for the project has been created by the ANCs, DDOT and many others, now it's up to everyone, including us as members of the community, to keep it going. We need to help identify potential sources for funding and analyze the feasibility of each option. I'm sure Metro will chip in since, I believe, it will be their operation. Of course, we could also look to partnering up with an ad sponsor to sell advertising on the cars, similar to the funding that came through for the streetscape plan. There are so many different ways to attack this and I think it will be a lot of fun working through the issues as the project moves forward.
I really like an idea that one person who posted had. Why don't we extend the street car's path past Union Station to Gallery Place? I feel this would open up huge opportunities for H St.
Agreed. By connecting it with Gallery Place those that live around H St. can actually use the line to get somewhere they want to go. But I guess the goal is to get people to H St not away from it although connecting the two areas could be mutually beneficial I think.
i agree with the idea of extending to gallery place / chinatown. then we can have easy access to the red line too. but how would we get this put on the table?
From what I remember about the Plan, the eventual goal is to extend the line to Gallery Place and beyond, all the way to Georgetown. At this point though, I believe there's only enough funding in place to extend the line to Union Station. In addition, having a feasible "turnaround" point at Gallery Place may be an issue since it's such a busy area. Ideally, I would love to have the line go all the way to Gallery Place too. If DDOT hasn't looked into whether that is workable during this first phase, maybe it can. But again, I suspect the money's just not there yet.
Connecting to Gallery Place could also possibly make some of the people in the new condo towers being built at Mount Vernon Place and that area come to our neighborhood rather than going to Gallery Place. One day the interstate will not be the giant barrier between NW and NE it currently is (at least so I hope.)
To the best of my understanding, there are no plans to extend any streetcar tract beyond Union Station. I think the idea is that the streetcars will connect the H Street Corridor (and Benning all the way to the Minn. Ave Station) to the metro by having a stop very close to Union Station (so you could take the the metro from Chinatown (or elsewhere) to the Corridor. The H Street Corridor will be connected to Georgetown by the Circulator buses that run from Union Station. I don't think there are any plans beyond that (or any money). However, the current streetcar plans offer a great future outlook for H Street. These plans will do much to connect us to the rest of the city & to facilitate neighborhood travel.
No, the ultimate plan for this line is the re-creation of the old 10/12 line, at least from Minnesota Ave. to Georgetown.
In other words, in time the Downtown Circulator route from Union Station to the Convention Center and past up K Street to Georgetown would be replaced by the streetcar route.
However, what I don't know is the plan in Joe's "plan" to put in tracks from Minnesota Avenue to the Starburst intersection.
I don't think it's likely that they'll set up the system to temporarily run from Union Station to the Starburst intersection, but then I don't really know what the city intends to do...
I stand corrected. Minn. Ave to Georgetown it is then.
See http://www.dctransitfuture.com/corridors/
I believe this is the first phase of implementing "Corridor 4."
I think one of the biggest obstacles to people accessing H st Ne is the H Street Bridge. Short of tearing it down, can we do something about the Hopscotch figures? They may have had their time but it has come and gone.
The air rights on either side of the bridge have been sold. That means that at some point there will be buildings and pedestrians will enter and exit from the bridge. If it's done well it should feel like a street rather than a bridge.
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