TRANSPORTATION Return of Area Trolleys Considered By District By Amanda McGrath Hoya Staff Writer

Charles Nailen/The Hoya A new light-rail trolley system would improve transportation in and around the District.

A new light-rail trolley system that could run through the Georgetown area is being considered as a possible means of improving transportation in the District. A commission of experts is investigating the feasibility of such a project and determining preliminary routes, including an east-west path that would involve the Georgetown M Street area.

The initiative would be a joint effort with Washington etropolitan Area Transportation Authority and the District’s Department of Transportation.

“We are still early in the first stages,” spokesman for the District Division of Transportation Bill Rice said. “All kinds of factors have to be considered.”

Among these factors are costs of the building and maintenance of a trolley system, possible routes and stops, land acquisition and the impact on traffic.

Proponents of the project say a trolley system would be cheaper and less time consuming to construct and would be able to make more stops than subways or busses.

In terms of the practicality of a light-rail transportation system, “It’s the equivalent of something between busses and heavy-rail subways.” Rice said.

This would not be Washington’s first light-rail system. Trolley cars once ran through the city and surrounding area but were eliminated in 1962 and replaced with a system of buses. Old tracks still line some areas, such as P Street and O Street, as remnants of the original trolley system.

Supporters say a light-rail system would be the most financially practical and the most flexible mode of transportation to install, since it can run above ground or be tunneled below ground where necessary.

Alternatives to the light-rail trolleys include an extension to the heavy-rail system. While heavy-rail costs roughly $150-250 million per mile to construct, light-rail would be considerably cheaper, costing about $25-50 million per mile.

Heavy-rail has also been considered recently for the Georgetown area. Another transportation project proposed by WMATA is the development of a new Blue line, which if approved would be operating by 2020 and would have a stop at M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The project’s cost is estimated at $6.3 billion.

The project’s main consideration is fulfilling the needs of city residents, and secondly meeting the needs of tourists, a representative from the D.C. Council Commission on Public Service said. Because of the residential concentration in the Georgetown area as well as the commercial areas of M Street that draws tourists, representatives said the Georgetown/M Street route was among the top three under consideration.

Most students felt the implementation of a trolley system would make travel in the area and to the rest of the city easier.

“It’s definitely a good idea. There’s no way to get around. If it gets us from here to the Metro stop at Foggy Bottom easier, that would be nice,” Julia Baugher (COL ’04) said.

Others said the trolleys would be welcome, but feared the effect it would have on traffic in the area.

“So long as it doesn’t mess up the roads. If they want to put [new] tracks on P Street or something, that’s a horrible idea,” Bridget Kearns (MSB ’03) said.

The commission reviewing the implications of the light-rail system plans to collect data that will be presented to Congress in order to request financial investment from the government.

A route through the M Street area would be contingent on what the commission decides the width and size of the trolleys should be. Because it is a heavy traffic area, wider designs would mean the elimination of on street parking and possibly a traffic lane, which has the potential to significantly disrupt automobile and bus transit.

The light-rail project came under consideration as the District began a process of reviewing the city’s transportation needs through 2025. Thus, construction on some parts of the system may not begin for over two decades.

Opponents of the trolley system maintain that transportation funding would be better used to improve and maintain the existing systems.

“It’s really too early to be making any concrete predictions,” Rice said. He also said the project had a “good reception” when presented to D.C. Council officials.