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Streetcar Project Wins Federal Grant

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The Federal Transit Administration is awarding the District with a $1 million grant to look into building a new streetcar line.

The grant will go toward studying the feasibility of running streetcars along K Street in Northwest D.C. It's part of a $25 million nationwide package the FTA is giving to states that are looking to build new transit systems.

Winning the grant comes as somewhat of a reversal of fortune for the District. Earlier this year, federal officials raised concerns that the overhead wires used to power the streetcars may block views of D.C.'s monuments and historic buildings. In July, the FTA rejected the District's application for another grant -- one much larger than the grant it won this week.

Ultimately though, the city's first streetcar line on H Street in Northeast is fully funded and scheduled to begin running in 2012. Whether more lines are built after that is still an open question.

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