For D.C. Residents, Streetcar Return Will Pose Practical Challenges

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For D.C. Residents, Streetcar Return Will Pose Practical Challenges

Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - 03:01 PM
By MARTIN DICARO : WAMU

If you stand on a corner in the H Street NE commercial district your ears will ring with a cacophony of city activity: cars and buses revving engines and honking horns, deliverymen unloading box trucks outside storefronts, the clatter and chatter of pedestrians and shoppers.

It would seem your ears would have no room for anything else.

To this urban mix will be added the electric whir of streetcars shifting from curb to median along 2.5 miles of tracks on H Street and Benning Road in Northeast D.C. It is the first section of a planned 22-mile priority streetcar network. The initial line is expected to open this year; the larger system will take years to complete.

A Change for All Parties on H Street

Before a single passenger can board a D.C. streetcar again, the system must pass all safety testing, an ongoing process that already has taken months. Once the streetcars start moving people, the District Department of Transportation will face the challenge of operating them safely and on time in a dense commercial corridor. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wnyc.org/story/dc-residents-streetcar-return-will-pose-practical-challenges/