page_title: H Street/Benning Road Line
section_title: Controversy
hierarchical_section_title: H Street/Benning Road Line / 2011 / Controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: Control panel of a DC Streetcar, H Street NE line, Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: The H Street/Benning Road Line is a currently operating line of DC Streetcar. It has eight stations and began operation on February 27, 2016. The 2.4-mile line runs along H Street NE and Benning Road NE in Washington, D.C.. In September 2016 service was increased from six days a week to seven, and with shorter 12-minute headways.
context_section_description: Several controversies arose over the H Street/Benning Road line in early 2012.  According to United Streetcar, a streetcar manufacturing company based in Oregon, the city awarded United Streetcar $8.7 million in contracts to build trolley cars for the H Street/Benning Road line.  Contracts were awarded in June 2011 and again in September 2011. On December 16, 2011, D.C. City Councilwoman Mary Cheh filed a "disapproval resolution" with the mayor's office, placing a 40-day hold on the contract after questions arose as to whether the contract called for the construction of two trolley cars (as the city claimed) or three (as Cheh believed). On December 21, 2011, Inekon Group filed a protest of the award with the D.C. Contract Appeals Board, claiming that cost/price trade-off analysis used by the city was inapporpriate. Streetcar proponents worried that the protest could delay the contract by up to 2.5 years, but DDOT moved much more quickly and canceled the contracts in early January 2012 after a formal internal review. In February, DDOT began the contract solicitation process anew. Due to the contract controversy, DDOT said it might begin running the H Street/Benning Road line with just three streetcars instead of five. D.C. City Council member Tommy Wells pressed DDOT to wait until it could run five trolley cars, arguing that with just three cars the streetcar system would not be convenient enough for passengers. Council member Mary Cheh, chair of the council's transportation committee, said the DDOT's management of the streetcar project had lost the confidence of the public and that she would seek legislation establishing an independent authority to run the system.  A new contract for vehicles was awarded in April, again to United Streetcar.
  At about the same time, DDOT announced a plan to build a $13 million, 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m²) trolley car barn, operations base, and maintenance facility on the grounds of Spingarn High School (which is near the eastern terminus of the line).  The facility would house only a few cars at first, but would be able to accommodate 12 cars. Residents of the Kingman Park neighborhood opposed the facility on the grounds that it would be noisy, near a public school, cause traffic congestion, and cause a reduction in property values. They demanded that DDOT seek approval from the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC), but DDOT officials said that the site did not require ANC or other legislative approval.
caption: Control panel of a streetcar running on DC Streetcar's H Street NE line
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