Service on the DC Streetcar, which runs along H Street NE and Benning Road, is ending in March, more than a year earlier than expected.

The funding for the DC Streetcar, which opened in 2016, was axed in the city’s budget for fiscal year 2026. The streetcar currently runs between Union Station and Oklahoma Avenue NE.

Service on the DC Streetcar was originally slated to end in the summer of 2027.

Now, the streetcar will stop operation on March 31, 2026, Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen, who chairs the council’s transportation committee, said in a newsletter.

Before its final run, the DC Streetcar will begin altered operations on Jan. 4, 2026. Starting then, it will run three cars with headways of 20 minutes, operating from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays, with no service on Sundays, Mr. Allen said in the newsletter.

Mr. Allen said that “the elimination of the Streetcar was disappointing and a cut too big to reverse within my committee’s budget purview,” adding that once plans to expand its line westwards fell through, its “utility was severely limited, and it realistically came with a heavy price tag.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser had previously indicated plans to replace the DC Streetcar by fiscal year 2029 with an alternative that did not require fixed tracks and could use overhead charging infrastructure.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.