D.C. Phases Out a Streetcar No One Desired
The above-ground streetcars pushing through traffic along Washington, D.C.’s H-Street Corridor have long ranked among the most costly and controversial pieces of public infrastructure inside the Beltway. On May 27, 2025, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced that over the next two years, the District will phase out the rail-bound streetcars in favor of electric buses, nine years after they opened in 2016. This wise decision will put an end to a transit system that burned through tens of millions in taxpayer dollars and failed to extend beyond its initial 2.2-mile line, falling well short of some supporters’ 40-mile ambitions.
By terminating the streetcars, Washington, D.C. will avoid the high cost of operations, maintenance, and expansion. Operating the streetcar system costs D.C. taxpayers $10 million annually. D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Sharon Kershbaum noted that six streetcars need to be replaced, which would cost the city $11 million each. In contrast, diesel transit buses cost on average $500,000 and electric buses $750,000. Expanding the streetcar system would set taxpayers back more than $100 million and its fare-free design meant the estimated $200 million lifetime cost of the system would always be subsidized. The dramatic price of the system’s upkeep led City Administrator Kevin Donahue to rightly call the streetcars “financially unjustifiable.”
The streetcar system promised but failed to increase efficiency. Because the streetcars share the roads with bicycles, buses, cars, and motorbikes, they are often blocked by traffic, parked cars, and other impediments, and they transport only “a fraction of the number of riders of the express buses that travel the same route.” These serious drawbacks of the streetcar system make its cancellation an easy, smart decision by Mayor Bowser.
In 2014, Vox reporter Matthew Yglesias named Washington, D.C.’s streetcars the “worst transit project in America.” More than a decade later, the streetcar system has lived down to this reputation thanks to its systemic inefficiencies and exorbitant price tag. Former DDOT Director Gabe Klein blamed a “lack of expertise in building rail, coordination issues with utility companies, and inconsistent political support” for hindering the project, but it was never going to work effectively.
The Washington, D.C. debacle should serve as a cautionary tale to other cities before they fall victim to the romance of streetcars. City Administrator Donahue emphasized that D.C. built the streetcar to “[make] people feel a little bit different.” Public transit should be grounded in function, not feeling. Washington, D.C., learned the hard way that city leaders should pull the brakes on streetcars before they guzzle hundreds of millions in taxpayer money.
–Zane Holley
