WASHINGTON -- D.C. officials said they are bringing back an old form of transportation to the city to relieve traffic congestion in some areas.

The street car could be soon seen riding along the city streets.

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However, some residents said they believe there is a reason the street car is a thing of the past.

For decades, the main form of transportation in the District was the street car, but by the early 1960s that form of transportation was gone. Now, there are plans to bring back street cars, having them travel along a few miles of tracks along two lines in the city -- one if Anacostia and another along the H Street Corridor.

"We want to provide citizens of the District with another mode of transportation that gets them where they need to get to," said D.C. Department of Transportation Director Emeka Moneme.

The street cars run along steel tracks and use overhead electrical wiring.

Along H Street, the street cars would share a four-lane road with other vehicles, meaning less room for cars.

"We only have specific right of way. We’re not going to find more right of way. We’re not going to be able to go and get more of it," said Moneme. "So, our concept is we’re trying to increase the throughput of people through our corridors – not vehicles, but people. There’s a big difference."

Len Sullivan, a retired engineer who runs a citizen group called the National Association to Restore Pride in America’s Capital, said he is not sold on the street car idea.

On the NARPAC Web site, Sullivan and others question the benefits of a street car in modern day D.C.

“All the rights of way are paved. All of the rights of way are crowded, and to now suggest that you should take the major Avenues, the major throughways -- the artilleries as they call them -- and clog them with what is now mainly an amusement ride doesn’t make much sense,” said Sullivan.

Some residents and business owners said bringing back street cars is a welcome idea.

"There is some merit to what they’re saying about them taking up space, but I think less traffic on H Street would probably for this neighborhood be a good thing," said resident Rick Manville.

"One of the challenges we faced as a new business is getting people down here. The challenge of not having Metro out here," said Getinet Bantayehu, owner of H Street business Granville Moore’s.

Moneme said DDOT would know if the street cars work for the city based on the ridership numbers.

Designs for the line, the street cars and a maintenance facility is more than halfway complete in the $27 to $30 million project, News4 Tracee Wilkins reported.

The D.C. Council is expected to vote on whether to bring street cars back to the city in October.

Plans for contracting will begin this fall, Wilkins said, and this winter, officials plan to break ground on the new street car lines.

A demonstration line is expected to be up and running in 2009. It would be placed in Anacostia or at the H Street site.