Cincinnati Street Car Design

[Habib]

The other alternative to this is a suburban express connection with parking lots.

 

A big stop somewhere down off I-71 near Hyde Park or something where folks can drop their cars in a protected lot and not have to drive downtown like the Metro in DC or something. Would be extremely functional on game days.

 

But that is a MUCH larger project and the usage numbers had better be on point or you're looking at a real mess. You're also now looking at a full rail transit system and not a simple intraurban streetcar.

 

That makes way more sense to me and is what I pictured when I first heard about this project. Plus, you could add a line from CVG to downtown with a stop or two along the way in NKY that would serve the same purpose.

 

Easier said than done, I guess. Even the meager street car has led to an uproar across the area. I imagine a more substantial project like that would lead to rioting. We can't even build a bridge.

[LOOGY]

In almost every city a street car is used to compliment the mass transit trains already in use. This is essentially a tour train going around the city. Also the other proble with this is, it only connects about a 1.5 mile stretch of the city. Most street car routes go in a line with two tracks which connect 4 or so miles of the city.

 

A good route would have been to have the street car start at UC, go through Findlay, Fountain square, the banks, then to Newport. It would have connected a huge chunk of the downtown and it would be worth riding as it connects you to almost the whole city. But this route they built is very inefficient.

[JDEaston]

It may get more use than some expect, IMO. I'm not sold on it being profitable, most transit systems are not. But personally I could see the downtown business group getting some use out if it, along with out if towners that visit frequently, like myself.

 

I come in from Ashland to catch ballgames and have friends in the area that I usually catch up with while there. A friend of mine and her wife are working on opening a brewery in OTR, I would certainly use this to get to and from the ballparks and the OTR area as opposed to driving back and forth.

 

I'm just one person and my usage would still be low, but I could see other people like myself using it as well. In general mass transit loses money rather than makes it, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if it loses money. I live in Ashland, which has a bus system and the Downtown loop uses trolly style busses like the picture posted above from Michigan. The city loses a ton of money on the bus system, even though ridership seems pretty high for this size town. Basically here, its just being offered as a service for people that do not have other means of transportation and cannot afford taxis, but the city knows they lose money on it and budgets their money accordingly.

 

On the other hand, in Cincy it seems like it could lead to more development in the limited area it will serve. If it works, I would expect to see the loops expanded to other areas of the city or even NKY, though that would be a stretch IMO, the two states are not the best at cooperating with each other, at least not in my area.

[frankdracman23]

Again no one was or is against mass transit or any kind of public transportation. You cannot find anyone that will say the Southbank Shuttle is a bad idea or a waste of money. Everyone loves it. It is a buck and runs a loop between Covington, Newport, Downtown Cincinnati.

 

And guess what? During the five day All-Star game celebration they added a bunch of buses/trolleys so the most you had to wait was 5 minutes. Wildly successful. Did it rip up streets and cost millions of dollars? Nope. Did it lose millions of dollars? Nope. Was in convenient and cost effective? Yes.

[ggclfan]

Cincinnati's downtown is better than it has ever been in my lifetime. Go down there any night. It is booming. As to the supposed streetcar boondoggle, I just saw where a puny lot in downtown sold for 1.1 million dollars. I wonder why that happened.

 

I agree that Cincy's downtown is doing very well and much better than in the past...I posted as much. The streetcar obviously has had nothing to do with the resurgence since it is not operating yet. You don't really think some lot sold for $1.1MM because of the streetcar, do you?? Keep in mind the city is NOT doing well financially and this boondoggle will cost A LOT of money in the short term and the long term.

[LIPTON BASH]

I'm not against public transit , I believe infrastructure is one of the main jobs of the government.

 

I'm against any government plan that is poorly thought put and inefficient. I'm against spending millions when the city's budget is in shambles.

 

If you've checked out the topics on DUI's here part of disgust is how the government in a lot of areas doesn't provide sufficent transportation.

 

The problem comes back to when the government has so much wasteful spending it handicaps creating projects that will have real results.

[SportsGuy41017]

^ I agree.

 

I wished they would have sat down and found a way to make the entire original route work, as well as look into having it loop into NKY.

 

It can work, but it's going to take a lot of creative thinking and work. Also, if they would have started this lets say 20 or so years ago, we would have a pretty nice system now and for a lot less money.

 

I enjoy the system that they have in Portland Or. They really thought out and planned there system.

 

How many times has Cincinnati given businesses money to either stay downtown or come downtown? To me that is a huge waste of money.

[LIPTON BASH]

^ I agree.

 

I wished they would have sat down and found a way to make the entire original route work, as well as look into having it loop into NKY.

 

It can work, but it's going to take a lot of creative thinking and work. Also, if they would have started this lets say 20 or so years ago, we would have a pretty nice system now and for a lot less money.

 

I enjoy the system that they have in Portland Or. They really thought out and planned there system.

 

How many times has Cincinnati given businesses money to either stay downtown or come downtown? To me that is a huge waste of money.

 

The government usually doesn't give companies money they give tax breaks to allow companies to keep more of their own money. Big difference.

 

But in Cincinnati's case they seem to like to give loans to businesses who can't pay them back.

[SportsGuy41017]

^ can't recall the deal at the moment, but in the mid 90s and early 2000d the Cincy gave Saks about $10 million to renovate.

 

They also gave money to Dunhumby, now mostly owned by Kroger, to stay downtown and build on a prime site. I also recall the city giving money to Macy's? And others, as well as when they offered Norstroms to build downtown, which is now the site of Dunhumby.

 

Again, not sure of the exact details, but giving it away or giving out loans to people who can't or won't pay back, to me is a waste.

[ColonelCrazy]

Every person I know that lives downtown cannot wait for the streetcar to be finished. That is one big reason for the streetcar - make downtown a place where more people want to live.

 

They want it finished because they plan to use it or because construction is awful??

[NEERFAN]

Someone hit a streetcar today. The car didn't win but it did take a chunk out of Cinci's Desire.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Someone hit a streetcar today. The car didn't win but it did take a chunk out of Cinci's Desire.

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

[MJAlltheWay24]

Not having a good start.

[Getslow]

I'll rewrite this headline:

 

"Shock of the Century: People in Ohio can't drive"