The Washington Times obituary was only 228 words long, which seems sad for a project that was powered by a bureaucrat's dreams and cost only $195,000,000 to build.
A project that began with great fanfare, was buried quietly without even a photo of the vanished taxpayer dollars on a Temu easel.
Yes, the great D.C. streetcar project is dead.
"Service on the D.C. Streetcar, which runs along H Street and Benning Road in Northeast is ending in March — more than a year earlier than expected.
"The funding for the D.C. Streetcar, which opened in 2016, was axed in the city’s budget for fiscal 2026. The streetcar currently runs between Union Station and Oklahoma Avenue Northeast."
The streetcar was a boon to parents who didn't want to pay to fly their little ones to Disneyland just to ride on a toy train. If you timed your ride just right — say at peak soup kitchen serving times on a day when the menu was tasty — it could be a thrilling experience for the little tots as they rode a streetcar line that was as short at their attention spans.
It was obvious to sentient beings this D.C. streetcar was just another example of the left's infatuation with outmoded transportation systems.
The D.C. mini–mass transit system connected a riverbank with Amtrak and cruised along at a sedate 4.6 miles per hour, which is almost exactly the speed of the Disneyland railroad.
During the ride the kids would be enchanted by the colorful tents on the sidewalk while mom and dad discuss the latest "No Kings!"rally with pedestrians as they amble along beside the streetcar.
On the other hand, a realist might see that construction number and think it's a lot of money for a two-mile, glorified Tonka Train. Particularly when the tax dollars could have resurfaced almost 200 miles of D.C.’s washboard streets.
The Washington Post originally reported, the late streetcar became desire when former D.C. bureaucrat Dan Tangherlini saw the Portland model and fell in love.
Washington, D.C. taxpayers should count themselves fortunate Tangherlini's trip didn't include a ride on a steamboat.
Otherwise, he might have wanted to reopen the W&O Canal.
The streetcar was originally intended to be a $1.3 billion, 22-mile system the construction of which would have brought gridlock out of Congress and into D.C. streets for decades, killing off more businesses than a BLM riot.
What taxpayers got was 7% of the system for 15%of the cost, which is about the usual D.C. incompetence surcharge.
NASA put a man on the moon in only seven years, inventing the technology as the project went along. It took D.C. 15 years, using 20th century technology, to get a passenger on a streetcar.
In the private sector incompetence on this scale would have meant job losses, bankruptcy, higher lobbyist fees, and pleas for a government bailout.
Since this is the government, it meant non-stop paychecks and promotions.
The streetcar's proud father, Tangherlini, failed upward and became Obama's head of the General Services Administration where he had billions to waste.
One of your columnists was in D.C. when they were testing the streetcar and it was a sight to behold. Portland's streetcar plans worked best with Portland streets.
In D.C. the lines were laid too close to cars that were allowed to park parallel to the tracks. Testing lasted for years; evidently hoping motorists might give up and leave.
The streetcar during the first person test looked like "The Flying Dutchman."
Entirely empty, brightly-lit, rumbling down the road its passage marked by the occasional screech of torn metal and shouted oaths as a car door was sheared off by the passing streetcar.
But fans of government waste should take heart.
Disneyland's railroad and the D.C. transportation systems both rely on fantasy for success. And the new fantasy in D.C. is a plan for a new "streetcar" by 2029 that won't have fixed tracks.
Now that sounds a lot like a bus to us, but what do we know?
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker's Bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.