An essential part in implementing any major project is to visit similar projects to see how others were done and learn from them, both the good and the bad. An advantage with public transit projects is that they are extremely easy to visit and test the user experience. I am always curious to see how other streetcar systems work and what that means for what we are building in Omaha. There are currently at least 14 operating modern streetcar systems in the United States (there are more streetcar systems if you count heritage trolleys and light rail systems that operate more like streetcars). I have visited several of these and would like to share some anecdotes, starting with the DC Streetcar.
The DC Streetcar’s Union Station stop provides a nice view east down H Street.
I visited Washington DC in mid-August 2024 as part of a transit conference and set out to experience it firsthand. This is particularly important as there are some similarities with the Omaha system:
- Operates in mixed traffic.
- Is run by a private operator (RATPDev).
- Does not charge a fare.
- Uses somewhat similar low-floor/level boarding vehicles (66 feet long for DC, 77 feet long for Omaha).
- End-to-end travel times (20 minutes for DC, about 15 minutes for Omaha).
- System length (2.2 miles in DC, 2.6 miles in Omaha).
- Requires a fleet of 6 total vehicles.
- Has plans for expansion.
Also similar to Omaha, the DC Streetcar has a long and storied history of planning and offers lessons learned in implementation. Early proposals for a streetcar started in the late 1990s and a 33-mile streetcar system plan was developed in the early 2000s.
A streetcar system planned developed by the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) in 2010.
The first line chosen for construction was for the Anacostia neighborhood in southeast DC, connecting two Metro stations and reusing a former freight railroad mainline. Construction began in 2004, three streetcar vehicles were ordered in 2005, and later that year, work stopped largely because of an issue with property ownership of the freight railroad.
The first three vehicles were completed in 2007, stored in the Czech Republic until 2009 (they matched the first Portland Streetcar vehicles) and then were stored at a Metro yard.
Progress on another planned streetcar line along H Street and Benning Road resumed, the line was built from 2012 to 2014, and the finally opened in February 2016 after issues with testing. Three additional cars were purchased from United Streetcar in 2012, an American manufacturer of modern streetcars near Portland, which built replicas of the Czech cars.
The Union Station stop is not the most convenient, located in the median of H Street, and there is no wayfinding signage from the streetcar station to the actual Union Station facility.
The H Street/Benning Road line has eight stations and runs east from Union Station (it is about a half-mile walk north of Union Station to access the streetcar platform) to Oklahoma Avenue. The trains run every 12 minutes throughout the day from 6 AM to 12 AM (they run later on Friday and Saturday nights and start later and end earlier on Sundays). I had read about issues with cars parked illegally along the line gumming up the system, although I did not experience this on my visit. However, this is something to prepare for with our system in Omaha.
A typical DC Streetcar station on H Street at 5th Street.
Streetcar ridership is back to pre-pandemic levels, which is about 2,000 passengers per day on average. This is pretty good considering that the streetcar really does not seem to serve any notable destination centers, it is far from connecting to Metro stations, and has competition from parallel local bus service such as the Route X2, which is slightly faster than the streetcar. I noticed that the section along H Street was much busier than Benning Road, which directly corresponds to the level of pedestrian activity along the street.