BeyondDC is weak. We, like most media covering new streetcar lines, lack the restraint to avoid invoking overused puns. It won’t take much googling to find references to A Streetcar Named Desire in the coverage of just about every American city considering reintroducing trolleys to its transportation mix. And now it’s our turn. BeyondDC wants the Anacostia streetcar. We want it bad, and we want it now. We covet our neighbor’s infrastructure.

We need a taste of what’s to come to hold us over until opening day, currently scheduled for sometime in the next year (the website says Spring 2008; we’re a little pessimistic about that). Photos ought to do the trick. From the manufacturer’s website, photos of the first actual tram vehicle bought and paid for by the District of Columbia:

Update 1/18/2008: After speaking to Ddot on the phone, we’ve learned the anticipated opening date has been pushed to Summer, 2009, almost three years later than originally scheduled. Oh well.