Finally, finally the Office of Planning has released the full results of their streetcar land use study, which details the projected effects on all 37 miles of the system that's been planned so far (I've been asking for it since a short version dropped last May). I'm still digesting the whole thing, which goes into [...]

Did anything actually happen in Housing Complex world while everyone was busy recapping the last year and ringing in the next? Not much, but a few stories of note. Herewith, a review.

The Czech company that made D.C.'s first three streetcars has appealed the District's decision to award a contract for the next pair to a [...]

Michael Neibauer reports that the District Department of Transportation has awarded the contract for two new streetcars to a Portland company, which offered a price of $8.7 million for the pair. That's $3.7 million for each 144-passenger vehicle, plus another $1.3 million for design, delivery, and insurance.
Whew!
By contrast, Metro's new buses cost $570,000 each and [...]

Every U.S. representative has a signature issue—or should—and Rep. Earl Blumenauer is the livability guy. Being from Portland, Oregon, he can hardly help it. Representing the city whose streetcar system is inspiring copycats around the country, he's also acting as a kind of federal godfather and evangelist for urban light rail projects, which face similar [...]

Yesterday, Greater Greater Washington reported that the Federal Transit Administration is requiring the District Department of Transportation to remove the installation of streetcar rails from its plans for the 11th Street Bridge. This is serious: It's yet another setback for a transit project that's seen its fair share, and puts a serious dent in the [...]

My column this week describes the tough spot in which the District Department of Transportation finds itself, trying to connect the H Street trolley line to Union Station while at the same time completing a credible NEPA study for the K Street extension. Part of the difficulty, some longtime streetcar watchers figure, is that the [...]

It sure is a beautiful vision: For years now, District officials have regaled citizens with tales of light rail from other coasts and countries. They’ve commissioned studies that depict streetcars as economic-development fairy dust, brightening every community that they touch. And now that the city has completed roadwork on H Street NE, the newly track-inlaid [...]

The District Department of Transportation has has whittled down its original ten options for the Anacostia streetcar line to a more manageable four since its last public meeting in the neighborhood—and may have tamped down some of the skepticism east of the river as well.
Gone is the option of a double-track on Martin Luther King [...]

A while ago, the Office of Planning commissioned a study on how the proposed 37-mile streetcar system will affect jobs, property values, tax revenues, and other big economic metrics in the city. Last month, it even won the Congress for the New Urbanism's 2011 Charter Award and the New Urban Network's plan of the month [...]

There it is: The light at the end of the tunnel for H Street's long suffering.
By June 30th, the District Department of Transportation announced last night at an update meeting on the streetcar, they expect to "substantially complete" street and sidewalk work in the corridor. And with $99.3 million in the Mayor's capital budget over [...]