Cincinnati — Streetcar Starter Approved

Rail Transit Online, May 2008

The city council by a 6-2 vote on Apr. 23 approved a proposed four-mile (6.4 km) modern streetcar starter line connecting downtown with the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. The project would cost an estimated $102 million,
$31 million of which would have to be contributed by the private sector, an effort City Manager Milton Dohoney called "...a tall order."

The council's action gives Dohoney authority to start raising money from corporations and other entities. "How we're going to be able to do that, I can't tell you," Dohoney told the council. The plan also calls for a spur between Over-the-Rhine and Uptown costing an additional $35 million; no route has been selected and no source for that money has so far been found.

The streetcar starter route, north on Main and Race streets and south on Elm and Walnut streets, was designed to complement downtown redevelopment efforts now underway and to make Over-the-Rhine housing more attractive to downtown workers. Average weekday ridership is estimated at 4,600.