WASHINGTON — The long-awaited short first stretch of the new D.C. Streetcar system will open to passengers Saturday, Feb. 27, just after 10 a.m.
On Thursday, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the opening date of the service connecting Union Station and H Street Northeast Thursday afternoon. There will be free rides for a while until fare rates are determined.
While former Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration promised several times that the streetcar would open, and there were other times where it seemed close to opening to riders, this will be the first time passengers can ride a streetcar in D.C. in decades.
D.C. has not yet figured out how fares will be collected on the system. Eventually, the D.C. Department of Transportation does plan to charge riders.
There are plans over the next decade to extend the streetcar to the Benning Road Metro Station to the east and to Georgetown in the west.
Those plans would include dedicated lanes for the streetcar in many stretches, something the current line does not have.
The last D.C. streetcars stopped operating 54 years ago. Nearly 10 years ago, the city tried to bring them back.
Bowser’s office says the opening ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. on Feb. 27 on 13th Street, NE between H Street, NE and Wylie Street, NE (intersection of 13th/H).
Following the ceremony, the D.C. Streetcar standard hours of operation will be:
- Monday-Thursday: 6:00 a.m. – 12:00 a.m.
- Friday: 6 a.m. – 2 a.m.
- Saturday: 8 a.m. – 2 a.m.
- Holidays: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
- No Sunday service
Watch a D.C. Department of Transportation video about how to ride the streetcar:
