H Street NE Streetcar Not Likely to Carry Passengers Until 2016

Martin Di Caro, the transportation reporter for WAMU 88.5, delivered some familiar news on The Kojo Nnamdi Show today: the H Street NE streetcar is still not ready to carry passengers, and likely won’t be ready by the end of the year.

The streetcar is set to start a final test phase that will take 21 days, after which D.C. Fire and EMS officials will be able to grant final approval to open to the public, Di Caro reported for WAMU.org.

However, officials have not yet set a date for the final testing phase, called pre-revenue operations, or PRO, will begin. Di Caro said it is very unlikely that the testing and approval from the Fire and EMS Department will finish by the end of the year:

“The fact that only 27 days are left in the year, therefore, shows time is running out in 2015. Moreover, there is no indication as to when oversight officials, led by Fire Captain Kelton Ellerbe, will give the go ahead to start PRO. His office continues to grapple with project managers inside the District Department of Transportation over the approval of documentation for the line’s safety systems.”

In September, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the streetcar would carry passengers by the end of the year, a promise that will likely not come true.