Funding the streetcar lines now under construction along H Street/Benning Road and Anacostia will cost about $194 million, and another $8 million a year to operate. The total cost of the proposed 37-mile, eight-line system across DC’s eight wards is $1.5 billion. This month, Mayor Vincent C. Gray formed a 14-member DC Streetcar Financing and Governance Task Force to provide advice on potential funding sources and the governance mechanism for the emerging streetcar system. Mayor Gray appointed six private sector members to the task force, including Richard H. Bradley, executive director of the DowntownDC BID, and Matthew J. Klein, a BID board member and president of Akridge (601 13th Street). Bradley is also president of DC Surface Transit, Inc. (DCST), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting convenient and affordable surface transit in the city.
In making the appointments, Mayor Gray said that he wants “to make sure we have the best minds inside and outside the government working on the important issues of financing and governance to ensure the system has a firm foundation.” The private sector members bring considerable combined experience with transit system finance and governance, public-private development partnerships, and project financing and economic development.
They are joined by the heads of eight DC government agencies: the District Department of Transportation (DDOT); the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED); the Office of Planning (OP); the Office of the Chief Financial Officer; the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Finance; the Department of General Services; and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). City Administrator Allen Lew will chair the task force.
The task force members are expected to present the mayor with a written report of their findings and recommendations on the streetcar system’s financial plan and governance structure. The task force will officially end on December 31, 2013.
Learn more about the DC Streetcar.