Initial planning began in the 1990s. The city published a feasibility study in 2002 and broke ground in 2004.
Three streetcars were ordered from a Czech company in 2005 but sat in European storage until 2009 because the city didn’t know what to do with them.
It was comically over budget. Construction cost about $200 million. Operating the streetcars cost $10 million every year.
Many didn’t dare ride because of how many homeless people camped out.
Finally, a serious structural budget deficit has forced city leaders to pull the plug. Outgoing D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) says “next generation” electric bus service will replace the streetcars by mid-2029. In the meantime, the chair of the D.C. Council’s transportation committee announced plans to budget $250,000 for a study of replacement transit options.
Of the many lessons from this debacle, perhaps none is more important than the fresh reminder of the sunk-cost fallacy. Year after year, D.C. politicians were unwilling to expend the political capital necessary to stop wasting millions of tax dollars, because they were afraid of antagonizing a small but vocal community of die-hard advocates for public transit. It’s better late than never to stop throwing good money after bad, but D.C. could have stopped this streetcar in its tracks two decades ago.
Of the many lessons from this debacle, perhaps none is more important than the fresh reminder of the sunk-cost fallacy. Year after year, D.C. politicians were unwilling to expend the political capital necessary to stop wasting millions of tax dollars, because they were afraid of antagonizing a small but vocal community of die-hard advocates for public transit. It’s better late than never to stop throwing good money after bad, but D.C. could have stopped this streetcar in its tracks two decades ago.
Via https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2026/03/yet-another-reason-politicians-should.html certainly a daily stop for me
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