D.C.'s streetcars are headed for auction block
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Rolling along H street after the 2016 launch. Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The DC Streetcar will make its final run on March 31 — closing the book on a transit saga that's riled the city for more than a decade.
Why it matters: What was pitched as the start of a citywide streetcar revival ends in a fire sale — and a case study in how big transit bets can go sideways.
Driving the news: The city tells Axios that it plans to auction the streetcars — a similar fate to the Circulator buses, which met their end last year.
- Power to the overhead wires will be cut (removal timeline is TBD).
- Metro's D20 bus will take over service along the corridor.
- Officials are eyeing future options — including electric buses — that could potentially reuse existing infrastructure.
Between the lines: The cost of shutting down the lone line, largely along H Street NE, is still unclear. The line cost about $10 million a year to operate — and was scrapped a year early amid budget cuts.
- So yes, it's an anticlimactic end for the little streetcar that couldn't.
Flashback: The system was only built out along about 2 miles and eight stops between Union Station and the RFK campus.
- But the big vision for it back in the 2010s was a citywide network that would connect neighborhoods all the way from Anacostia to Georgetown.
- It was billed as a revival of a once-cherished system — streetcars defined D.C. in the late 1800s and early 1900s, cruising along more than 200 miles of track.
Friction point: Years of delays and cost overruns eroded public trust before the streetcar even debuted — and once the line opened, it never lived up to its promise.
- Low ridership (less than 2,600 people daily) lagged behind nearby buses.
- No fully dedicated lanes meant streetcars often crawled behind traffic and double-parked cars.
- Expansion plans fizzled as skepticism grew.
The big picture: The streetcar's end comes at a pivotal moment for H Street, as the corridor grapples with business closures and stalled redevelopment.
- Last week, Safeway announced it's closing at Hechinger Mall, an 8.5-acre site long slated for redevelopment.
- The city has tapped planners to study how to revive the strip.
Yes, but: H Street remains one of D.C.'s most vibrant historic neighborhoods — with a strong restaurant and bar scene and more projects in the pipeline, like a sprawling indoor-outdoor urban mall.
The intrigue: Want to say goodbye? Gallery O on H is hosting a streetcar farewell party Sunday with live music, drinks and — fittingly — "questionable eulogies."