The return of streetcars to the District has long been anticipated (long, long, looong been anticipated), and now some Fairfax County supervisors are moving to get a trolley on track in D.C.’s southern suburbs, too.
The line would run along the Richmond Highway (U.S. Rt. 1) past new developments (including up to eight new hotels), and hook up with Fairfax Metro stations on the north and its tourist attractions on the south, including Mount Vernon.
The streetcars wouldn’t be the first to rumble down county roads. At the turn of the 20th century, the Washington-Mt. Vernon line ran between the two with 36 stops in between — including one at Luna Park in south Arlington County, once an amusement park but now a sewage treatment plant.
Right now, the trolleys are little more than a hope — or, “in the conceptual stage,” according to a staffer for Supervisor Gerry Hyland, D-Mount Vernon.
Hyland moved at a Tuesday Board of Supervisors meeting to have the streetcar idea studied further.
“We want [the county Department of Transportation] to look at ridership projections and whether this will be successful and viable in the long term,” Hyland’s spokesman said by email.
The streetcars could potentially replace the hotels’ shuttles to historic and retail areas, and could draw more tourists from elsewhere in the metro area, Hyland said. The Mount Vernon and Lee District Chamber of Commerce have expressed excitement about the idea, as has Visit Fairfax, the county’s tourism bureau.
