The article notes that "[i]n his fiscal 2011 capital budget, Fenty proposes to bankroll a 1.95-mile H Street/Benning line with $40 million — well shy of its $73 million price tag." But it also points out that Graham excercises some degree of control over those purse strings.
What exactly does the H Street line need? The article lays it out very clearly:
To launch the H Street line the city must order at least six more cars, engineer a car turnaround at Union Station, construct a maintenance facility, extend the track to the Benning Road Metro Station east of the Anacostia River and decide how the line will be powered — by overhead wires, underground power or a hybrid system.
No small feat when you're talking about the District government.
8 comments:
The article raises necessary questions that have to be answered soon if we are serious about bringing streetcars to H St. by 2012.
It seems to me the city needs to purchase the 6 extra streetcars within the next few months and start design/build of the maintenance facilities now if we are realistically going to meet the 2012 deadline.
Neighborhood attendance at the April 20th meeting will be critical. Residents in the area really need to start pressing DDOT for details on the key components of the project (i.e., streetcar ordering and delivery times, location and construction of maintenance facilities, design of Union Station/Hopscotch Bridge track, selection of a power system, location and construction of power facility, etc.).
The time of vague plans is over. DDOT needs to provide specifics now if we're going to have a streetcar running by 2012.
Wow, i can't believe i ever doubted the trolley. That short to do list and the hyper efficient dc gov't have me seriously questioning my cynisism. Guess all that whisky clouds my judgement.
Tonyt
the pug
"Graham Pushes H Street Streetcar"- if he's willing to do that full-time, we don't need to worry about electrical lines!
Yeah, that's a pretty tall to-do list.
why do we need a car turnaround? i thought these cars ran both ways
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/04/16/ST2010041603838.html?sid=ST2010041603838
I hope that during the course of the conversation about the H Street streetcar, we also can address the broader traffic issues, namely the fact that DDOT is funneling all bus traffic leaving Union Station garage east on H street. The result is a parade of oversize busses belching through the neighborhood trying to figure out how to get to eastbound H street. The worst offenders are the Circulator busses.
I'm not sure why DDOT wants to push bus traffic through 3rd and 4th streets, but it needs to stop. It's a quality of life issue.
"...underground power..."
I find it rather amusing that this is still considered an option seeing as how none of the track being laid right now has any provision for powered operation!
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