Atlanta did something similar trying to mimic the flavor of New Orleans. It has been in the Red since its inception. A GROSS waste of money.

That's nothing DC has spent 10X that on the 2.2 miles they ended up with.

DDOT issued a favorable report, and the D.C. City Council approved an expenditure of $310 million for the streetcar project in September 2002.[15] The first line to be built would be a 7.2-mile (11.6 km) "starter" streetcar line in Anacostia.[15] The goal of the project was to bring light rail to Anacostia first (rather than last, as had happened with Metrorail), and to provide a speedier, more cost-effective way to link the neighborhood with the rest of the city.[15]

Initially, the line was planned to run along the abandoned CSX railway tracks (known as the Shepherd Industrial Spur) from the Minnesota Avenue Metro station to the Anacostia Metro station, then cross the 11th Street Bridges before connecting with the Navy Yard – Ballpark and Waterfront Metro stations.[15] DDOT originally planned to purchase diesel multiple unit cars (self-propelled rail cars powered by diesel engines) from Colorado Railcar.[16] Layton Lyndsey, reporting in The Washington Post, asserted the cars would be the first of their kind to be built in the United States and approved by the Federal Railroad Administration.[16]