I tried to look through past articles on this but couldn't find anything even though I'm sure it has been addressed many times, but will there just be one track along H/Benning for both eastbound and westbound streetcars? Or will they also be putting in more rails on the eastbound lanes of H?
tony: pepco has several substations disguised as houses. i used to live next door to one. if it weren't for the giant danger/high voltage signs on the doors and windows and the enormous metal coils coming out of the roof, you would never notice it. :)
For my two cents, it seems to me DDOT is really rushing this project to get something on the street and (if it works) build momentum towards the city-wide plan. But they are definitely cutting some corners to do so:
* The (single track, single car!) Union Station platform is no transit hub. It has poor connectivity and minimal capacity. I think people are going to be seriously unimpressed and wonder -- why all the fuss about streetcars?
The maintenance shed is going to be built directly in the way of the future expansion of this streetcar line towards downtown.
* The streetscape features of the H Street line are being thrown up like crazy with little apparent design thinking. The substations are ugly, and from what I can tell the streetcar stops are unappealing concrete monstrosities as well. We're taking those things DOWN in places like the Starburst intersection, only to build them up again along the streetcar line?
* Without federal funding, this whole system is NOT going to make it across the Anacostia. It will stop just short of the bridge at Oklahoma Ave.
I'm very concerned that the city is hellbent on doing this thing fast, as opposed to getting it right. (And I'm not even one of the overhead wire Nazis.) If this investment doesn't impress the whole city by significantly contributing to a pleasant work/play/live environment on H Street, then DDOT might have done more damage to our transit future than if they'd never built the H Street streetcar in the first place.
I'm not worried about rushing it. Get it started/done. I think it is very modifiable over time. It's not like digging a metro tunnel/station in the wrong place and then building stuff on top of it.
I agree with Dave B! You can always modify to add another car/track to load and unload in Union. The funding for extending the line from Oklahoma to the Benning metro can come from part of the FY11 budget ($40M already committed) and the remainder from the FY12 budget ($20M) and that is IF the federal grant funding doesnt come through. We need to get this thing going in order to attract economic development. That will be the TRUE test to convince the other corridors to implement light rail.
7 comments:
Power station at 1215 Wylie? Wonder what they are going to have it look like? A little fake rowhouse?
I've always liked the hidden subway exits in NYC, they seem to fit in rather well.
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/04/13/brooklyn_heights_townhouse_is_actually_a_decoy.php
I tried to look through past articles on this but couldn't find anything even though I'm sure it has been addressed many times, but will there just be one track along H/Benning for both eastbound and westbound streetcars? Or will they also be putting in more rails on the eastbound lanes of H?
They'll be putting in another track.
tony: pepco has several substations disguised as houses. i used to live next door to one. if it weren't for the giant danger/high voltage signs on the doors and windows and the enormous metal coils coming out of the roof, you would never notice it. :)
See http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=5593 for a more detailed recap and links to the DDOT presentations.
For my two cents, it seems to me DDOT is really rushing this project to get something on the street and (if it works) build momentum towards the city-wide plan. But they are definitely cutting some corners to do so:
* The (single track, single car!) Union Station platform is no transit hub. It has poor connectivity and minimal capacity. I think people are going to be seriously unimpressed and wonder -- why all the fuss about streetcars?
The maintenance shed is going to be built directly in the way of the future expansion of this streetcar line towards downtown.
* The streetscape features of the H Street line are being thrown up like crazy with little apparent design thinking. The substations are ugly, and from what I can tell the streetcar stops are unappealing concrete monstrosities as well. We're taking those things DOWN in places like the Starburst intersection, only to build them up again along the streetcar line?
* Without federal funding, this whole system is NOT going to make it across the Anacostia. It will stop just short of the bridge at Oklahoma Ave.
I'm very concerned that the city is hellbent on doing this thing fast, as opposed to getting it right. (And I'm not even one of the overhead wire Nazis.) If this investment doesn't impress the whole city by significantly contributing to a pleasant work/play/live environment on H Street, then DDOT might have done more damage to our transit future than if they'd never built the H Street streetcar in the first place.
I'm not worried about rushing it. Get it started/done. I think it is very modifiable over time. It's not like digging a metro tunnel/station in the wrong place and then building stuff on top of it.
I agree with Dave B! You can always modify to add another car/track to load and unload in Union. The funding for extending the line from Oklahoma to the Benning metro can come from part of the FY11 budget ($40M already committed) and the remainder from the FY12 budget ($20M) and that is IF the federal grant funding doesnt come through. We need to get this thing going in order to attract economic development. That will be the TRUE test to convince the other corridors to implement light rail.
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