Trips on the $200 million Washington, D.C., streetcar will remain free for several years because officials are afraid of frightening potential riders away and never bothered to install a collection system when originally built.
Officials with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced Monday they will not charge fares for the streetcar for at least the next four years. Leif Dormsjo, director of the DDOT explained many factors influenced the decision, including the fact officials never created a system for processing fares when initial construction of the streetcar was underway, reports WAMU.
Transit leaders briefly considered imposing a $1 fare charge, but feared the fee was too high to justify the service, which extends only 2.2. miles along H Street between Union Station and Benning Road. After Atlanta imposed a similar fee in 2016 on its streetcar after previously offering it for free, ridership dropped by 48 percent. District officials feared similar repercussions from a fare charge.
Dormsjo said it did not make sense to install a fare system until the streetcar is expanded into a larger service, arguing it needs to be integrated with the fare system used by the D.C. Metro.
“If we introduced a fare card system just to be stand-alone for the D.C. streetcar system, it would be obsolete the day we launched it,” Dormsjo told WAMU. “From a business perspective, it doesn’t make sense until we have a much longer line, more riders, and when we know how to integrate our fare system with where Metro is going to be in the years to come.”
The District’s streetcar began operating in February 2016 after a 54-year hiatus, 10 years of bureaucratic roadblocks and $200 million in taxpayer money. With passengers riding for free, maintaining the streetcar will cost taxpayers roughly $8 million a year in operational costs.
“It doesn’t go to enough places to pay for it,” Delores King, a regular rider, told WAMU.
It takes roughly 26 minutes to make it between the two destinations. Obstacles may add to that time, including street parking and illegally parked vehicles. A pedestrian walking the same path can complete the trip in just 27 minutes.
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