SF Muni high platform. Photo by chronos_tachyon.

DC’s effort to build streetcars on just a few of the routes we had before 1962 has faced numerous obstacles, from negotiations with CSX to anti neighbors to the National Capital Planning Commission. Now they might have to surmount one more: potential incompatibility between Metrobuses and planned streetcar platforms.

A few weeks ago, Metro’s Assistant General Manager for Bus Services, Milo Victoria, sent a letter to DDOT officials asking them to lower the planned streetcar platforms for H Street. Current plans call for a platform that is 15 inches high where the center door of the streetcar will stop. That will let people step directly onto the streetcar and allow wheelchair users to board without needing special lifts.

Unfortunately, that platform is also a bit higher than the rear doors on Metro’s new articulated buses for the X2 line, which will run along with the streetcar. Passengers will have to step up to get out of the rear door, which Victoria worries would cause riders to trip, especially if they’re not used to the high platforms. In addition, while streetcar tracks ensure the streetcars will always stop at the same distance the curb, human-operated buses might stop too close, leading to doors hitting the platform, or too far, leaving a dangerous gap.

Victoria recommends DDOT design the systems to use a lower platform of 7 or 8 inches, or a longer stop design that will allow buses to stop entirely forward of the area with the high curb.

This isn’t an insurmountable issue. DDOT and WMATA are working together on the design, and letters like this are a part of that process. Metro isn’t opposing streetcars. It does illuminate the complexities that designers must grapple with as they design the system.

Meanwhile, those of us not within DDOT still haven’t gotten to see these streetcar plans, which seem to be fairly far along. So far, we know that plans include stops, platforms, and the connection at Union Station. Releasing more details would help streetcar advocates build support within communities and among leaders in Congress, the DC Council, NCPC and elsewhere to move the project forward.

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.