DC Streetcar registers 3 millionth rider

The DC Streetcar recently reached a milestone by logging its 3 millionth passenger since opening in February 2016, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced.

As the Washington, D.C., streetcar nears its third anniversary, plans to expand the 2.4-mile system continue to move forward, DDOT officials said in a press release. An expansion — the Benning Road Extension — is in the planning and design stages, they said.

The extension will run east across the Anacostia River from Oklahoma Avenue NE to the Benning Road Metrorail Station. It will connect residential neighborhoods in northeast D.C. to the downtown employment core and serve mixed-use developments along Benning Road. The extension also will provide access to a revitalized commercial district along H Street NE and Union Station via the H/Benning streetcar route.
 
"The ridership numbers and tremendous economic development we've seen along the H-Street corridor support the decision to move forward with the project," said DDOT Director Jeff Marootian.

In addition, the DC Streetcar's car barn training center won two architectural awards this year: an Engineering News-Record Award of Merit and Urban Land Institute's Excellence in Institutional Development Award.