It's finally happening. The H Street streetcar is finally going to open to the public on February 27 at 10 a.m., as confirmed by Mayor Muriel Bowser in a recent tweet. The $160 million project has dodged multiple deadlines, so many that even former Mayor Marion Barry had to call out the the project, describing it as "ill-planned, ill-thought-out, ill-engineered, ill-everything." This will be the first time since 1962 that the nation's capital has had a streetcar service open to the public. The grand opening for the 2.2-mile streetcar line, which will serve H Street NE and Benning Road NE, will be on 13th Street NE between Wylie and H streets NE.
Previous D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams first proposed the streetcar line in 2003 in a draft Strategic Development Plan. Since then it has missed deadline after deadline, it has caught on fire, it has been in car accidents, and it was almost canceled completely. Will it all have been worth it? Only time will tell.
Big news, DC! Streetcar to start passenger service next Saturday! Visit https://t.co/2HVljBFU1H for more info. pic.twitter.com/oGmI3QE3D9
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) February 18, 2016
· All streetcar coverage [Curbed DC]