The Streetcar-Minus-Streetcar Plan Worked for D.C.

There's a joke in my neighborhood in Washington, D.C.: Which opens first, the Silver Line or the streetcar? Feel free to swap any achievement with the Silver Line opening—say, the Nationals taking the pennant race, or good BBQ coming to the District. The joke being that the delays plaguing the opening of the H Street–Benning Road segment in Northeast D.C. have made the streetcar a benchmark for any overdue arrival. Serious planning for both the streetcar and Silver Line got underway in the 2000s, but no one really believed that the heavy rail in the Northern Virginia suburbs would beat the streetcar in the Atlas District corridor.

Now that joke isn't funny anymore. This week, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority assumed control of the Silver Line (which was constructed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority), meaning that only testing and training remain before it's up and running. Meanwhile, the D.C. Council voted to curb and recalculate longterm funding for the streetcar. While service on the Silver Line could start as early as July, the future of the streetcar system has been thrown into doubt.