>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.
>>2069418Streetcars inspire transit oriented development. The point is that when a city decides to spend millions of dollars installing a new rail line, people with money decide to put more businesses and housing along the line because they know the city will maintain it for decades to come, just ensuring continuous business. If an area that a bus line run through experiences problems, the city has less incentive to fix it and maintain that area, because they can just make the bus line go through a different area, or just delete the bus route altogetheryour mistake is thinking that transportation systems are always about transporting people and that there aren't other reasons why they are installed
Trams are the perfect litmus test for a country being first world. Only first world countries can build and maintain functioning and useful tram systems. While third worlders such as >>2069428 can't even understand the point of trams they just go>durrrr bus on rails durrr
>>2069418If I recall correctly when the streetcar first opened the bus route that goes on the same street saw zero decline in ridership which implied that close to 100% of streetcar ridership was new transit ridership in the corridor, even though it was slower and went less places. I agree though that building it is stupid with how expensive it was and how poorly it was executed.
>>2069539Americans can actually build decent tram systems but they will just call them "light rail".
>>2069555>the bus route that goes on the same streetYeah see, that's how brown third worlders with too much money on their hands would build a streetcar.Sensible people would look at the most heavily used bus line or lines and see to *rellace* it entirely or at least mostly with the tram, thus integrating it seamlessly into the surface transportation network (which itself should complement the heavy rail network).Alternatively you could look into significant gaps in the subway network that would benefit from a complementary line but where demand may not justify the cost of a full subway and build the streetcar more as part of the subway system.Both of these options are legit, but you need an average IQ above room temperature in the administration, not the case in the US obv
>>2069610Local streetcars shouldn't be funded by "the administration". It's local. The funding should be local.
>>2069418the main advantage is the rails cost less to lay/service and they can be laid in essentially gravel, and trams should get their own "lane" so they arent held up by traffic. they can also be a lot bigger than a bus and are easier to electrify. but US urbanists are dumb as fuck and just put them in for SOVL over asphalt streets anyway so they jam up traffic and cost MORE per mile than equivalent streets, and if they do bother to electrify it it's still off an unreliable and expensive grid already mostly gas-fired so there arent much cost savings compared to normal fuelalso 99% of these tram lines are typical american style doing it wrong on purpose to "prove" why it wouldn't work, and are mostly short lines that don't go anywhere and are more of an amusement park ride for a "revitalized downtown" than an actual transportation methodthese days theyre basically completely obsoleted by subways and elevated rail and only really appropriate for places where you can't dig for cheap and/or nimbys will chimp out about having a couple pillars in the street for an elevated track and really finally only make sense to lay at grade to service suburbs/exurbs, but those people are retards who think public transit will just drop off niggers at their door and even when not the real solution is to turn the suburb/exurb into a functional town that has jobs and services in or near it instead of relying on commuter trains to get into already congested downtown cores
>>2071140local administration can also be "the administration" you turd.
>>2071143>and if they do bother to electrify it>also 99% of these tram lines are typical american style doing it wrong on purpose to "prove" why it wouldn't workForeigners have such active imaginations
I lived on this line for years and never boarded. X2 went farther and faster
>>2068940>So, what went wrong here?You know exactly what went wrong, but if I say it I'll be accused of "_____ derangement syndrome"
>>2071271Tram derangement syndrome?
>>2069539>Trams are the perfect litmus test for a country being first world. Going to the moon is a perfect litmus test for a first world country. Trams are ideal for fare dodgers. Now where's your "first world"?
The original D.C. streetcars used an underground electric conduit power system similar to those in Manhattan and London, with a narrow plow going down in a slot similar to cable car vaults. On lines out to the suburbs they switched to overhead trolley wire. There’s several blocks of old conduit track in Georgetown and some in an old abandoned tunnel.
>>2071334It was one of the last (if not *the* last) tram system to use conduit current collection. New York shut down in the late 40s, London in 52.They also had a sightseeing car which was air conditioned, probably the first PCC ever equipped with AC.When the streetcar system was closed the PCCs were sold to Barcelona and Sarajevo, and were the only American-built PCCs that ever ran in Europe. In Barcelona they only ran for 8 more years until their tram was also closed in 1971. People there said the PCCs were by far the best tram vehicles they'd ever seen. Truly a unique system, real shame that it was closed down.
>>2071344I love conduit systems and it still amazes me how they even functioned but they were very reliable though expensive to build and maintain. I read that one reason for the demise of D.C. streetcars was they anticipated a big snowstorm for JFK’s January 1961 inauguration and salted the crap out of the streets. It didn’t snow but did a lot of damage to the conduit, one more excuse to scrap the tracks.
