Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert announced the city’s commitment to move the streetcar idea forward. Planned and longed for by metro residents for more than a decade, the City of Omaha is committing finances and public works. The route will be as expected along Farnam and Harney Streets from the 10th Street to UNMC around 42nd Street.
Though the Mayor’s statement starts with: “Mayor Jean Stothert and the Greater Omaha Chamber’s Urban Core Committee are proposing to develop Omaha’s first streetcar route through the city’s urban core,” there have of course been streetcars in Omaha before, including along the same route. Learn more about Omaha’s streetcar history.
There are several factors causing this announcement at this time:
- Previous $200 million bond passed under Mayor Stothert will fund some of the project
- Mutual of Omaha announced their skyscraper today, which will be along the planned route
- The Harney Street bike lane, though not funded by Omaha, is gaining popularity
- The ORBT bus route along Dodge Street is gaining popularity as well. Discussions are underway to add an ORBT route north-south along 24th Street.
- $4 billion in recently completed, under construction, and planned projects in the downtown-midtown corridor. The largest project is UNMC/Nebraska Medicine’s NEXT project – a large hospital expansion
Omaha’s bus operator OMetro published a “Omaha Streetcar Advanced Conceptual Engineering” (PDF) study in 2016. And since 2017, the Modern Streetcar Advocates have been keeping the issue on people’s minds.
The route, as seen below, is generally the same one that was proposed more than five years ago. Click here for larger version.
