{"id":381,"date":"2009-08-13T11:00:34","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cityblock.wordpress.com\/?p=381"},"modified":"2009-08-13T11:00:34","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T15:00:34","slug":"streetcar-planning-in-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexblock.net\/blog\/2009\/08\/13\/streetcar-planning-in-dc\/","title":{"rendered":"Streetcar Planning in DC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One<\/a>

One of Toronto's Red Rockets<\/p><\/div>\n

While I was out on vacation, wheels started turning on getting DC’s streetcar planning back on track (har har).\u00a0 Public meetings, platitudes, and so on.\u00a0 BDC offers the quick and dirty<\/a> summary:<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t able to attend last night\u2019s streetcar meeting with Gabe Klein<\/a>, but based on summaries<\/a> I\u2019m not sure we learned all that much that we didn\u2019t already know. The key points seem to be that Klein wants streetcars to be a priority and is appointing a new streetcar czar, that the Federal government is more excited about streetcars than in the past, that we\u2019re still not sure about the overhead wire issue (but someone in Congress may address it soon), and that we\u2019re still looking at 2012 before the first line in Anacostia opens.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, there are still some serious questions about rather basic items (even leaving aside the power issue for now), like route alignments.\u00a0 Greater Greater Washington notes<\/a>: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Klein reiterated support for the streetcar alignments in the current Comprehensive Plan. The first streetcars will run from Anacostia over the 11th Street Bridge, and along H Street and Benning Road, ultimately connecting to downtown on the K Street Transitway. Phase two is 7th Street and Georgia Avenue, and Minnesota Avenue between Anacostia and the Minnesota Avenue Metro near Benning Road, connecting the two lines across River East. There are still many outstanding alignment questions, like how to connect the streetcar to Union Station, where to continue it over the 11th Street Bridge (to Eastern Market? M Street SE?), and where to place maintenance facilities and storage yards for the H\/Benning line.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Comprehensive Plan highlights these routes, complete with rather nebulous distinctions between modes – Streetcars in blue, BRT in green, and “rapid bus” in Yellow:<\/p>\n

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The first obvious question is to determine what other transportation facilities might be implemented in the near future.\u00a0 I’m thinking specifically about Metro here.\u00a0 I bring it up because the core of the streetcar alignments in Downtown look an awful lot like the ideas<\/a> for separating<\/a> Metro’s interlined portions of track.\u00a0 From my earlier fantasy posts, potential new Metro trackage (comprised of a New Blue line and New Yellow line through downtown) would look a lot like the core ‘cross’ of the streetcar lines in the DC Plan:<\/p>\n

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