[Photo by Flickr user thisisbossi]
The H Street streetcar has already lost the opening date race to the Silver Line (July 26!) and in place of a vehicle actually moving across the soon-to-be-replaced Hopscotch Bridge, the Atlas District has received yet another start-of-service prediction: November. True, this estimation that operator training, safety inspections and systems testing should be complete in four months seems reasonable and certainly less wackadoo than Mayor Vince Gray's overly optimistic divination from last winter. And yet, even though the prediction is coming from a source at DDOT, who likely has a good grasp on things like testing timetables, it's clear based on the reader poll in this WAMU article (will it open by November?) and the title of this accompanying Washington Business Journal piece that nobody actually expects the streetcar to run this year. D.C. will believe a November opening when they see it, DDOT.
· DDOT Best-Case Scenario Targets November Opening For D.C. Streetcar [WAMU]
· D.C. Streetcar to debut in November... hopefully [WBJ]
· All Streetcar Coverage [CDC]