Washington, DC ― Anacostia Streetcars Shipped

Rail Transit Online, December 2009

The three streetcars for the Anacostia demonstration line ordered more than four years ago from Skoda-Inekon in the Czech Republic are finally on their way. The cars, completed in early 2008 at a cost of $10 million, had been in storage awaiting word from the District Department of Transportation that they could be shipped to the U.S.

On Nov. 17, the agency released photos of the three cars being loaded aboard flatbed trucks for the trip to Hamburg, Germany, where they were loaded aboard a ship. Once in Washington in mid-December, they will again be stored, this time at Metro's Greenbelt rail yard while awaiting completion of the Anacostia line's maintenance facility.

The earliest they will be in revenue service is 2012. Work on tracklaying for the 1.5-mi. (2.4 km) project connecting Good Hope Road with Bolling Air Force Base is currently underway.