DC's streetcars took so long to get going. Now they're set to retire in 2 years

D.C.'s often-troubled streetcar system in Northeast could be nearing the end of the track.

Mayor Muriel Bowser's budget proposal includes a plan to phase out the streetcars over the next two years and eventually replace them with electric buses.

After years of delays, setbacks and construction, streetcars hit the tracks in 2016 — becoming the first streetcars to carry passengers in the District in more than 50 years. At the time, the hope was that the system would be transformative.

For those who live and work here along H Street NE, D.C.'s streetcar system has been one of the greatest spectacles to watch — both good and bad.

"Oh, the neighborhood has changed a lot," business owner Kendra Mines said.

Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

While businesses have sprouted up along the corridor — some of them with the allure of the streetcar — others have had to suffer through the years of construction and clunky rollout of the program.

"We lost all kinds of business," said Mines, who runs her business, Dynamic Wellness, on H Street, selling natural supplements.

A lot of people along H Street say they were just getting used to the streetcar, which provides free rides along H Street NE and Benning Road.

Now, the fact that it's going to be go away has some wondering: What was it all for?

"Blank stare, blink blink," Hines said, laughing in disbelief. "Like, why?"

But District leaders now say the program doesn't go far enough and it costs too much.

"The reality of the capital costs involved in maintaining and extending the streetcar are that it is exorbitant," D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Sharon Kershbaum said. "To just replace the streetcars, there are six cars now and they are past their useful life, it's $11 million per car."

And she says the streetcars get stuck in traffic.

Add on that it would cost well over $100 million to extend the service — and it means the program is hitting a dead end.

DDOT says it will now explore a larger east-west transit connection in the District, likely using electric buses. The likely plan is to retire the streetcars in two years and replace them with electric buses that would use the overhead wires already in place.

"The city administrator describes electric trolley buses, so you can take advantage of the catenaries that charge the streetcars, but they are rubber tires," Kershbaum said. "That means that it's far less expensive; you don't need to lay down tracks."

For now, the streetcar trudges on slowly along H Street with its time likely grinding closer to an end.