This should have been promoted much earlier than February 26th...

This was twittered earlier today by DDOT, in association with tomorrow's launch of the streetcar in DC.

-- DC Streetcar launch page

Maybe like how Seattle did a soft launch of the First Hill streetcar line a few weeks ago, because it had been delayed by more than one year because of manufacturing and mechanical issues, and they were tired of the bad publicity, the city needs/needed to do a big promotion of the new streetcar, although late February for weather reasons is never a good time to make a big splash outdoors.

In any case, announcement of this one day before is an example of not adequately addressing promotion and marketing of the new service in advance of its launch.

Apparently there is a brochure on the service available in local establishments.  It doesn't not appear to be downloadable on the DC Streetcar website.

And while I can't find an official brochure online for the "H Street Passport" promotion in association with the launch, the H Street Great Street blog has an entry, "Streetcar services kicks off tomorrow 10 am, H Street celebrates opening with passport promotion & specials," recounting the specials.  If you get the passport stamped at 7 of the establishments listed, and turn it in, you're eligible for a prize drawing.

In general, DC's area transit agencies aren't particularly good at marketing, although Arlington County is an exception:

-- "Making transit sexy," (2005)
-- "More on Metro and rethinking transit marketing," (2006)
-- "WMATA, the Marketing Imagination, and the weekend service-constant repair dilemma," (2013)
-- "Transit, stations, and placemaking," (2013)
-- "One big idea: Getting MARC and Metrorail to integrate fares, stations, and marketing systems, using London Overground as an example," (2015)

As I mentioned in the earlier piece this week, failure can get international attention as much as success, and sadly while H Street has received great press internationally in the Financial Times, New York Times, and other media, the debacles of the DC streetcar bring a different sort of attention, including this article, "A streetcar in the mire," from The Economist.