>Less than a week left until shutdown>Only a decade run>Only one line completed out of several proposed>Underperformed despite a Union Station connection and being in one of America's best transit citiesSo, what went wrong here?
>>2068940>So, what went wrong here?Looks like another "streetcar to nowhere" that goes places no one wants to go
>>2068940Its urbanists only real crime. Its just romanticism about old pictures that makes the fixate on streetcars. Totally irrational compared to buses.
>>2068940> Never extended east or west to properly complement/replace the X2.> Never built out into a proper network.Had either of those happened, it would’ve done better.
>>2068940Slower than the buses which went on the exact same route
>>2068944>Its urbanists only real crime. Its just romanticism about old pictures that makes the fixate on streetcars. Totally irrational compared to buses.There's another thread on streetcars/trams already, but it's not just romanticism. That being said, I didn't know DC had a streetcar and I don't understand the purpose. I think streetcars can make sense in midwestern cities and other places in the US that are in the process of revitalizing their downtowns. They can be a piece of the puzzle, and the investment in permanent rail transport is a signal to business and real estate developers that the city is committed to that area for decades to come. This incentivizes those developers to build infill businesses and apartments along the streetcar line, which increases urban density and thus increases overall tax revenue for the city. As for the DC streetcar. I don't really understand it. They already have a great subway system. They have what I assume is an effective bus system. I guess the streetcar connects parts of the subway system above ground that weren't easily connected before? I like streetcars, but they really only make sense in certain contexts, and I'm not sure this was a good one
>>2068944Obama-era American planners basically treated streetcars as a cargo cult and ignored all the best practices implemented by French planners.
>>2069341?Street cars have no advantage over regular buses and have massive negatives...
>>2069418They have two advantages over buses:>They are technically trains, therefore scratching that particular autistic itch >They have that old-world soul like New OrleansBut yeah, other than that buses mog streetcars into the dirt.
>>2069418Installation costs are higher, running costs are lower. You throw a bus on the scrap heap after ten years while the streetcar goes through a mid-life refurbish after thirty. The killer is often about who pays for the asphalt the buses tear up.
