The track's not laid, and the money's not in the bank. Still, there's plenty of reason to cheer Washington's selection of Dallas – and particularly north Oak Cliff – as a place to invest money in a streetcar line.

The news of federal transit dollars flowing into Dallas came a few weeks back, but it's still reverberating south of the Trinity River. For some time now, residents and businesses have been working on a plan to turn an underdeveloped stretch of north Oak Cliff near the Trinity into a more walkable, livable community.

The stretch of blocks in a rough triangle bounded by Zang Boulevard and Greenbriar Lane on the north and east to Beckley Avenue on the west and Colorado Boulevard on the south form much of what planners call the Oak Cliff Gateway. News that a streetcar line will one day connect that district – and several surrounding blocks – to nearby Methodist Medical Center and downtown Dallas gives supporters a big boost for their vision, which already has won approval from the Dallas City Council.

The new money is part of a $23 million grant the North Central Texas Council of Governments won to develop streetcars in strategic parts of Dallas, including through downtown. The funds are matched by $10 million that City Hall has pledged. Local officials still need to raise a lot more to make this dream a reality. When all the columns are tallied, all of the dollars won't go to Oak Cliff; some, obviously, will fund downtown sections of the line.

But Washington certainly picked up on the Oak Cliff connection in its grant award. The feds liked the Oak Cliff portion because it met their larger goal of connecting nearby neighborhoods to downtown centers. And Oak Cliff is the spoke in the bigger wheel, as Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce president Bob Stimson put it. (The spoke includes connecting Methodist hospital to downtown via rail, just as main Baylor University Medical Center in East Dallas and Presbyterian Hospital in North Dallas are linked to downtown by DART light rail.)

Now, Oak Cliff leaders, City Hall officials and the downtown business community have a green light to start planning. They must get a line up and running in three years.

We will leave the details for later. For now, we want to celebrate the momentum this award will generate for an important part of Oak Cliff.

If nothing else, the grant is one more reversal of the neglect Oak Cliff has endured. The Bishop Arts District in north Oak Cliff is one happening place, thanks to entrepreneurial restaurateurs, shop owners and artists. Likewise, funky development is rippling along neighboring Davis Street.

And now, the prospect of a streetcar line that crosses the river.

We couldn't be more pleased. As a newspaper committed to helping the southern half of Dallas reach equality in prosperity, we believe this is news everyone in the region should cheer with gusto.