H Street Trolley Won’t Get Direct Connection to Union Station
This won't be happening anymore. (DDOT)
Back in April, the District Department of Transportation's point man on streetcars, Scott Kubly, assured the denizens of H Street NE that they were still working with Amtrak to run the western end of the streetcar underneath the railroad tracks, creating a direct connection to Union Station and transit links to the rest of the city.
"Nobody has signed on the dotted line, but nobody has told us 'no' yet," he said. "What's slowing it down isn't a hard 'no' from Amtrak. What it is is uncertainty from Amtrak."
Not long after, however, Amtrak started saying "no," citing a desire to preserve space for high-speed rail infrastructure in its long-range master plan—if it ever gets funded. Now, it looks like DDOT's preferred option is dead, and with it the District's hope of hitching the streetcar directly to Metro.
"It has enough problems with Amtrak's desire to do significant construction over and under that area that the other alternatives, I think, are looking more realistic," says Jonathon Kass, who until last week was the clerk for the Council's committee on public works and transportation. "It's plausible that it's 100 percent off the table."
(Another source confirmed that the option is, in fact, off the table).
That isn't the end of the world, of course. The currently favored idea, running the streetcar over the Hopscotch Bridge and depositing passengers in the parking lot, would add only a few minutes to the walk in between modes of transit. But it's still not optimal—in its analysis of alternatives last fall, DDOT said that would cost about twice as much as their preferred plan, and also would leave no space in Union Station for the needed maintenance facility, which would likely have to be built towards the eastern end of the line.
The other dismaying part about Amtrak's unwillingness to work with DDOT is how far it's set the project back. If the agency had said no this time last year, the District could have moved more quickly to issue a design/build request for proposals, which Kass says it may still do while analysis of terminus alternatives is underway. (DDOT, which I've been asking about this for over a month now, may expand on these points at some point in the future).
Part of the problem may have been uncertainty from Amtrak about just how much incoming mayor Vince Gray was committed to streetcars, after his aborted attempt to cut funding for the program during the previous budget season. In February, during the transition, Amtrak's vice president for government affairs Joe McHugh wrote to Gray's chief of staff Gerri Mason Hall:
My larger question to you is whether or not this project is going to go forward. There are a number of issues that we need to resolve with the city and they are not huge issues but they will require time and careful consideration. They have to do with easement and the duration of time that the H Street tunnel needs to be utilized and review of design documents. I get the sense that DC DOT is basically forging ahead with this project and there was some sense that this would not be a priority for the new mayor. Obviously we want to be cooperative and helpful to the city because many aspects of this project are mutually beneficial to the station and the overall transportation synergies that are created. So this is really to ask you what your sense is on the future of the project and that will help me gauge the allocation of our resources.
He didn't receive a response. And Gray went on to include nearly $100 million in the capital budget for streetcars over the next six years.
The currently preferred alternative, running the streetcar over the Hopscotch bridge onto the Union Station parking deck. (DDOT)
5:37 pm
Settles it for me - Gray is the worst mayor I have seen in this city (between him, Fenty and Williams).
Stupid, stupid move.
5:59 pm
Who is actually going to use this things?
To take this thing from my house near Eastern Market, I need to walk 5 min to the metro, wait 5-15 min or so for a train, take a 10 min train ride to metro center. Wait another 5-20 min for red train. Take the Red Line two stops. Get out and walk to the trolley, wait for the trolley to come and then ride if for however long it takes to reach my final destination.
Seems this trolley is basically a waste until they extend it downtown, and then it is mostly useful as a way for people from H Street to get downtown.
6:48 pm
In order to kill any person or thing that is beloved by the people, you must first remove thier love for it.
Otherwise you create a martyr or symbol.
6:59 pm
chris,
i will.
7:01 pm
Lot of people will ride it. The X2 route is one of the busiest in the city. The bus is always jam packed.
7:38 pm
How long will it take to pay for itself? 100 Million dollars, over 5 years. Come on now, that is a huge amount of ridership to even begin to break even. Huge! So if this is simply not going to connect in all the right places, why is this project going forward then?
Is this another one of those spending frenzis that the city could well do without?
7:43 pm
Don't the majority of people pick up the X2 in Chinatown? It picks up/drops off huge masses right at that Metro station.
8:39 pm
@chris
If you want to go from Eastern Market to H Street you probably should take the 90s buses that go... directly from Eastern Market to H Street on 8th.
Just because it's not made for your specific trip doesn't mean it's useless.
8:46 pm
@Keith
Infrastructure, whether rail, road, or bus, NEVER pays for itself. The Interstate Highway System is actually an incredible money loser, but I don't see people saying that it needs to break even because they realise how important it is. It's sad that we don't treat rail the same way. DDOT had a great plan for a District-wide tram system and I for one am pretty pissed that it may never come to fruition.
9:14 pm
lol @ chris. Gray should have just checked with you first!
9:37 pm
Rather it pays for itself, but through indirect means (increased economic development, tax receipts, etc).
9:47 pm
This conversation already took place way back in the 40's. Not that I would know what that conversation would look like being a child of the "Goonies" age.
The X2 is a bus with low maintenance costs, high flexibility, low initial costs, and operation knowledge that is negligible. ALL of which this trolley will not be. This is the exact same reason for the decline of the trolley car so long ago.
If the destination, and ease of use is not available it will merely bee seen as an expensive "joy ride" by those working class that actually use the X2 to DOWNTOWN.
10:21 pm
*Beats head against desk*
Are you freaking kidding me? Is Amtrak also insisting on retaining air rights over Union Station and the accompanying B&O right of way for the eventuality that it gets flying jet trains like in Back to the Future III? Because the likelihood of that happening is about the same as that of Amtrak's HSR wish list coming to fruition.
What ridiculous shortsightedness. It's like the entire project is taking place in the land of the blind, but the one-eyed man got kneecapped on the way there and has now taken up residence in Chicago. Good God.
10:47 pm
Chris,
You really need to educate yourself about streetcars (and the X2 bus which is a terrible way to travel, not to mention unreliable and ). The trolley car did NOT decline for the reasons that which you state. Actually, they made their appearance in the last part of the 19th century and were successful until the Great Depression when ridership fell off for obvious reasons. After WWII they were once again being used but the onset of cheap cars and gas led most cities to pave over the tracks. A lot of people think that the paving over the tracks was actually funded by Detroit which makes a lot of sense if you want to sell cars, buses, tires, gas, etc...
In fact, street cars are cheaper to maintain than the buses that they can / will replace and since they run on electricity instead of natural gas or diesel, are better for the environment. Read up on the wild success of the streetcar in Portland, OR or Montpellier, France and how the projects have revitalized what were once pretty sketchy areas.
While your last statement is true, ease of use is inherent in the system. They do HAVE to figure out where it is going to go on the west end of the line, and I'm not sure why they ever planned on going to UnSta knowing they'd have to get permission from Amtrak. Why not just continue to Gallery Place? They've already got pedestrians going in every direction at that intersection - why not just close it to cars altogether. No one uses H for east-west commute at that point in town, and using 6th or 8th to go North or South is an easy alternative to 7th. If they don't figure something out smart, it will seem like a waste.
It seems as if you are against the streetcar whether or not they figure it out. The economic impact of simply the POTENTIAL of a street car coming to H St is already being felt along the H St corridor both with businesses wanting to move there (really just food for now) and also property values. I own here and have seen my property value increase by about 30% in two years. You can see the changes yourself when you walk around. If you're still not convinced, read this: http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/06/03/36-reasons-that-streetcars-are-better-than-buses/ and then see if you can come up with, say, five? reasons why the bus is better than the streetcar. I really doubt anyone is coming up with the counterpoint to that.
10:48 pm
Why would there be a loop in the garage? These cars have cabs at both ends, and don't need loops like the older style... Just a track crossover.
Long term, the streetcar was supposed to go over the bridge anyway, so the only real affect is the unfortunate delay.
10:51 pm
Chris, take the stupid Circulator from EM to the bus level of Amtrak. Go up 3 escalators to catch the trolley. Go to the starburst intersection, and ask yourself, "What in the Sam Hill am I doing here?" Turn around, go back on the trolley to the roof level of Amtrak, take 3 escalators down to catch the Circulator. Enjoy the current Circulator route from Amtrak to Eastern Market, via (I kid you not) 1st and Louisiana Ave NW. You can probably complete the whole circuit in half a day.
If a transit system doesn't quite connect, is it a system?
11:27 pm
To the first Chris: You don't "have" to take this. Not sure why, starting from Eastern Market since you have your own metro, why you would ever need to take the streetcar. It's not actually a tourist attraction - it is real infrastructure designed to get people on who wouldn't normally ride buses. Streetcars ALWAYS attract more riders than buses. ALWAYS.
11:27 pm
I HAaaaTe Vince Gray! Fuck him and his backward administration.
11:32 pm
@ Calvin, in this case, people going from almost Union Station to where Hechingers used to be. When do they open th
11:33 pm
...e U Street choo-choo?
9:00 am
Apparently whoever is designing this plan doesn't understand that streetcars have cabs on both ends and just need a switch between the two sets of rails to reverse. A full loop is completely unnecessary. Why are they making this more complicated than it needs to be?
If someone was bright they'd use this Amtrak setback as a way to leverage extending the initial streetcar route straight to Chinatown!!! That would make the whole thing infinitely more useful and if it's not going to open until 2013 anyway....
STREETCAR FROM H STREET TO CHINATOWN!!! MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!
9:11 am
"I told you so"...
DDOT from the very beginning has completely botched the entire streetcar program. We are now 3 years behind the "revised" schedule with no clear end in sight.
This is what happens when you put tyros with zero functional experience, like Gable Klein and Scott Kubley in charge of something they don't understand. I am glad Kubley is leaving.
Tying down easements and ROW's for something like this is the FIRST thing you do, not the last. It's complicated, protracted, expensive and often combative, but I doubt folks like Kubley even knew what the difference between ROW and an easement was before he got the job of managing what was to be a multibillion dollar project.
Instead, DDOT's first step was buying some streetcars that spent 2 years in storage in Romania, and now have spent almost two years in storage here. Village idiots know that entities like rail companies rarely if ever give up their ROW because they never know when they will need it in the future, and new ROW is impossible to get.
Then, after they ordered the cars, they decided to figure out how they were going to run. WRONG.
Instead, Kubley and team have been assuring us now for almost 3 years that this wouldn't be a problem. What a joke.
9:32 am
These are the sorts of things you settle BEFORE you start building the thing. Common sense. But the political motivations of the Fenty administration to build it NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NO TIME TO WORK OUT THE DETAILS NOW NOW NOW kind of has us painted in the corner on these things.
The street car will get finished. It will get used. But it won't be as good as it could have been. To blame Grey at the 11th hour is really political hackery.
9:44 am
"Citing a desire to preserve space for high-speed rail infrastructure in its long-range master plan"? What a joke! One has to wonder what might have happened if Amtrak had gotten any pushback from the mayor (or even a response to their inquiry). I think Gray wants an excuse to kill the whole streetcar project and use the money elsewhere. Regardless, he's the worst. We need to elect a mayor who vigorously leads on important issues like this, not a corrupt hack like Gray.
10:08 am
I actually think this is the better outcome. Ultimately, when Burnham Place gets built, the Hopscotch Bridge will have street level retail. Having the streetcar go three stories below that would be a waste. And ultimately, I don't see why having a direct connection to the Metro station is less possible now. Before, it would have gone underneath the metro lines and required new construction to make the connection. Now it will be above. Why is it so much harder to have a connection from the bridge down to the station? Losing the service yard is a loss, no doubt, but I don't think this is nearly as much of a blow to the future system's functionality than it's being made out to be.
10:23 am
Street cars need to provide DC residents links to metro. Take a look at real european designed citys that use Street cars to cross with metro so that transporation within the city is easy to access. STREET CARS!!! WOO HOO!
1:36 pm
"To blame Grey at the 11th hour is really political hackery."
+1
Don't you have enough legitimate things to gripe about with Grey? This is not his mess.
You lot are hilarious. You give Fenty credit for everything that Anthony Williams accomplished, then blame Gray for everything he screwed up. He was no hero. I am not defending Gray for all the BS we've gotten from him either, but it's absolutely defenseless to blame anything at all about the streetcar mess on him. That's 100% Fenty.
2:09 pm
ha ha ha chris. you are silly man!
2:47 pm
DDOT has known for a very long time they did not have access to Union Station,but they kept pushing ahead with plans and track for the streetcar. Scott Kubly knew the cat was about to get out of the bad and bailed. Gray was correct to cut streetcar funding from the budget but the yup yups of GGW wanted a new toy.
Well look what your tantrum got you.
2:53 pm
When all this excellent work by DDOT is done, a passenger will ride the Circulator from Eastern Market to the northern (H Street) end of the 2nd parking floor, around where the Bolt buses and Circulators all meet and get in each others' way. Upon alighting from the bus, the passenger can look north out the exit door the buses take to H Street NE, which is RIGHT THERE. Then this lucky passenger will trudge toward the south (Mass Avenue) end of Union Station via a series of escalators to the roof, where said lucky passenger will trudge BACK to H Street NE to catch the trolley.
Quel convenient!
The photo accompanying this post seems to show a few cars parked on the Union Station parking deck. In my experience, it is usually FULL of cars these days, since so many other floors of parking have been given over to things like Circulators and such. That means Union Station will not be somewhat LESS convenient for the majority who drive to the damn place, in order to make it MORE convenient to the relatively tiny number who will arrive by trolley.
Perhaps the city could allow free parking on Hopscotch Bridge, to make up for the parking spaces lost to the trolley on the Union Station parking deck. That would insure that all modes of transportation in the vicinity of the train station are screwed up--except, of course, the godd_m Ducks, which will continue to flock in the ever-so-convenient row directly in front of Union Station.
2:59 pm
Wouldn't the ideal location be on Columbus Circle, in front of Union Station, rather than inside some stinky dark parking garage?
3:04 pm
oh puhleeze. jus buy a dang car
3:12 pm
And....yet another reason those street cars are a colossal waste of DC's money
3:35 pm
All the people saying the street car will have low ridership clearly haven't been to H St in a while. Even setting aside the fact that the X2 is always packed, there are currently at least four different large condo developments going up the neighborhood (360 H St, and three along Bladensburg Rd.) If you think that won't increase ridership, well, I think you're wrong.
3:41 pm
"a new toy"?? "collossal waste of money"???
Do you guys read anything at all about streetcars? NOTHING revitalizeS the urban environment like streetcars. Coming on here and writing things like that really just speak to the prejudice that people have already towards the streetcar and nothing is going to change their mind. If you think it's a toy or a colossal waste of money then honestly you have no idea what you're talking about. Google " benefits of street cars" or "Portland street cars" and edumacate yourself.
3:49 pm
Chris..errrr....truly-pist: his streetcar is not to go from eastern market 2 h street! SMH actually SYH
4:32 pm
This exemplifies how inept DDOT is, and how stupid it is to start building when the plan ain't quite finished. (and how darn long has this process been ongoing, anyway???). Example two on DDOT...the intersection changes at NY and FL Ave....horrible. Example three...15th St NW, and the changes to put the bike path behind the parked cars, which has resulted in accidents involving cyclists (i both drive and ride this street frequently), less parking, less traffic flow, and thus environmental inefficiencies. Example three: 9th St NW, south from the Convention Center through the 395 tunnel...one lane instead of three. No turn signals equals mass backups during rush hour, the bus lane from hell that also doubles as a bike lane, kind of, and horrible paving that is good for the shock and strut industry but not for drivers. Total cluster.
Also, it's clear that streetcars aren't essential for economic development...clearly that's not what enabled 14th Street and U street to develop. Or Penn Quarter. Or 8th St SE. Any reasonable public transportation will allow young professionals to co-locate...it doesn't need to be a streetcar.
4:35 pm
The plan was to take it over Hopscotch bridge long-term anyway, beginning in 2016. It is just the most expensive short-term prospect.
From page 15 at:
http://www.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Mass+Transit+in+DC/DC+Streetcar/System+Plan+October+2010/DC+Streetcar+System+Plan+-+October+2010
H ST BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTION
The long‐term plan for streetcar will take the tracks over the H St Bridge. This will provide a direct connection to the proposed Burnham Place development, the Intercity Bus Terminal, AMTRAK/VRE/MARC, Metrorail, Metrobus, Capital Bikeshare, and the DC Circulator. DDOT envisions a three stage implementation of the western terminus of the H St/Benning Rd streetcar line:
You can look at all the options for the western and eastern termini starting on page 9 of that document, although, a loop in the parking garage is not included in the list.
8:37 pm
Nobody has said anywhere that they are essential for economic development. Of all the places that you named, that have been successful economically, can you guess what all of them have that the H street corridor does not have?
Although people continue to say that young people will ride the bus as much as they will ride the streetcar, it is simply untrue. Do you really think that the h street corridor is growing at the rate at which it is because of the X2 bus?
8:53 pm
oh ya, none of those areas burned to the ground in riots either.
12:35 am
This streetcar is stupid. It will not get me from my home in Adams Morgan to my job in Fairfax. Therefore it is stupid. Only things that help me do exactly what I want to do are not stupid.
8:24 am
Kathryn, I don't know what SMH and SYH mean.
If the H Street NE streetcar connected to a trolley at around 15th (Starburst Intersection) or 8th that ran north-south and thence over the 11th Street bridge to Anacostia, and at its west end to Chinatown and on toward downtown, cool. But it doesn't. The H Street NE trolley is a toy train that toot-toot-toots from one end of H Street NE to the other, and connects to nothing else. Not even Union Station, it seems.
9:18 am
@trulee_pist
Wow, if only the streetcar would connect to SOME FORM of public transportation that ran DOWN 8TH STREET to Anacostia! Well that already exists!
http://www.wmata.com/bus/timetables/dc/90-92.pdf
Not to mention the fact that that link is ALREADY in the streetcar plan along with connecting the H street streetcar to Chinatown!
http://www.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/On+Your+Street/Mass+Transit+in+DC/DC+Streetcar/DC+Streetcar+Proposed+System+Plan
But hey, just keep saying it, you might be right one of these times!
11:38 am
Matt, is there a plan for WMATA-paid manicure and pedicure on the trolley extension? Alas, also not gonna happen.
The 90/92's been a great bus route for generations (and a great trolley line before that). The "innovations" of the Gabe Klein era, not so much: The H St NE trolley doesn't "quite" make it to Union Station, and the Circulator connection from EM to Union Station kinda sux.
Gimme that ol' time religion.
12:10 pm
Chris: Ride the Circulator to Union Station from Eastern Market Metro. Or ride the 90/92 down 8th St to H St. Or...walk/bike to H St.
1:10 pm
Chris: DON'T ride the Circulator to Union Station from Eastern Market, and DEFINITELY do not ride the Circulator from Union Station TO Eastern Market. The routes DDOT agreed to are a pain.
If you thought that was how you were going to connect to the cool new trolley when it opens in late 2013 (maybe), well, it turns out "not quite."
Worse than the routes are the Circulators' selection of Circulator stops at Union Station, a key link in the Navy Yard-EM-Union Station and Union Station-Georgetown "system."
I know, Chris, in your mind's eye, you are thinking, "Hmmm, Circulator stop at Union Station. That must be inside Columbus Circle, right?" No. "Then it's surely on Massachusetts Avenue, on the outer ring of that circle?" Sorry. It's buried deep in the bowels of the smelly, dirty, dark parking garage.
Will DDOT ever recognize that was a bad idea and change it? Nope.
4:40 pm
For the nth time, if you live in Eastern Market, there probably won't be any reason for you to ride the trolly - certainly not to get from there to H St. Honestly, if you go via Union Station to get to H St. - streetcar or no streetcar - you are dumb.
10:37 am
Kathryn,
"In fact, street cars are cheaper to maintain than the buses that they can / will replace and since they run on electricity instead of natural gas or diesel, are better for the environment. "
Electricity that the streetcars will use is not better for the environment plain and simple saying it is presents a boldface lie. All Electricity used for 50 miles in any direction comes from Coal which is worst than Natural Gas or Diesel.
The environment in DC may be better but the environment where the Coal comes from will be worst.
---
Can someone explain why the streetcar route is not the complete X2 route from end to end; if the current route was running now it would only get passengers between 8th and H Streets and Hechinger Mall
12:33 pm
Que -- The current segment doesn't end at 8th and H, so I don't know what you're talking about. It continues all the way to approximately Union Station.
The plan is to take the streetcar all the way from H street to Georgetown, but they can't build the entire X2 route all in one go. It's being implemented in phases. Eventually the route should be twice (or more?) the length of the X2 route since it will cross the city and not end at the White House. There are also plans to expand the line in the other direction out Benning Road ASAP. I think the eastern extension is just waiting on funding, but is otherwise ready to go.
3:56 am
Chris, you asked a question...here's an answer.
I will ride the streetcar at least weekly to go out on H St. It will substantially reduce my stress levels in getting there (as has been mentioned, the X2 is currently a cluster), and provide me with an alternative should my bus home (not the X2) magically vanish as it's wont to do in the later evening with no explanation. I image my Capitol Hill (NE) friends and many of my Green Line friends would use it to get home from H St. as well.
I just got back from Portland and the streetcars are fantastic. They're slower than the Metro but MUCH faster than a bus. Also substantially more comfortable. And they're VERY popular. On Saturday, headed to the airport, there were stops that people couldn't even get on because it was so packed, despite having just missed the previous train and waiting only 5 or 6 minutes for the one I was aboard. I don't listen to the irrational naysayers very often, but one question about wheelchairs did strike me as a question that needed answered...they have ramps that pop right out onto the curb. All you do is hit a button and the ramp deploys. Good stuff!
I certainly hope that we can continue making progress toward the overall streetcar plan, as an efficient, effective transit system will be nothing but good for me personally and the city at large. Building new Metro lines within the city is just too expensive to make it happen in the current climate, and the streetcars are a good alternative for areas not currently served by good transit. And don't tell me the X2 is "good transit." If you believe that, you obviously have not tried to ride the X2 at rush hour in many years.
11:30 am
Where's Tommy? Pulling weeds in the parks?