DC Streetcar service to end in 2026, a year earlier than originally planned
If you’ve come to depend on the D.C. Streetcar to get around the H Street corridor, you might not be able to for much longer. The District Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that the service is ending on March 31, 2026.
The closure comes a year earlier than initially planned, for March 2027, after the D.C. Council cut funding for the line in its fiscal year 2026 budget.
In a statement, DDOT officials said the decision comes after years of low ridership. They also cited the system’s operational challenges because it ran in mixed traffic, and it also racked up higher costs to maintain and extend the system.
The D.C. Streetcar was launched in 2016 as a single line that runs 2.2 miles between Union Station and the edge of the RFK Stadium Campus.
Mayor Muriel Bowser announced in May that the city’s only streetcar line would be replaced by late 2028 or mid-2029 with an electric bus “that would be charged by the same overhead wires,” according to The Washington Post.
WMATA’s D20 bus, which runs along the H Street corridor, is one alternative to the closing streetcar.
DDOT officials said the agency is coordinating with WMATA to provide other alternatives for current riders in the area.
Officials said Sunday service will be eliminated effective Jan. 4, 2026, before the final shutdown at the end of March. And on Jan. 4, there will be revised operating hours with 20-minute headways:
- Monday-Friday: 6 a.m.-10 p.m.
- Saturday: 8 a.m.-10 p.m.