All Aboard D.C.'s Streetcar Nightmare

The late mayor Marion Barry called the D.C. streetcar project “ill-planned, ill-thought-out, ill-engineered, ill-everything,” a statement with which few would disagree. After a 54-year hiatus, the streetcar is back in action, offering commuters the nostalgia of a sluggish transit service with a hefty price tag to taxpayers.

Running just over two miles along H Street north of Capitol Hill, the streetcar was slated to open in 2012. Four years and $200 million dollars later, it debuted late February, giving Northeast D.C. residents a free ride from Union Station to Benning Road.