One of my favorite lines from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is, “Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can!” Jay Gatsby wasn’t referring to streetcars when telling this to Nick Carraway, although I like to think of its use in urban development, where there are a lot of great city-planning concepts that are still in strong use today. This includes the streetcar, which is still a viable type of transit today. On the other side of the argument, some people may think the streetcar is outdated technology and was pushed out of service for a reason.
This article intends to set the record straight and establish an understanding of why Omaha’s modern streetcar that is under construction now is both similar to the past while still being very different: this is no homage to the past.
For a complete and thorough history of Omaha’s streetcar system, I highly recommend Richard Orr’s book, O&CB Streetcars of Omaha and Council Bluffs, published in 1996. In the past year, I have been researching the Omaha & Southern Interurban Railway, which was a 7-mile line between South Omaha and Fort Crook via Bellevue, which got me thinking more about the history of streetcars in Omaha. As an urban transit planner, I have always found it helpful to understand the history of transit, which explains why the current street network and neighborhood fabric exists and how former streetcar corridors can be good candidates for bus, streetcar or light rail service today.
The first streetcar service in Omaha started in January 1869 as horse-drawn cars, operated by the Omaha Horse Railway. Other technology followed with the first cable car line opening in December 1887 as the Cable Tramway Company, The first electric-traction streetcar began service in October 1888 as the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company, which coincided with the opening of the Douglas Street Bridge (later known as the Ak-Sar-Ben Bridge) across the Missouri River. With the new electric traction technology, streetcars took off in the 1890s and ultimately replaced the horse-drawn cars and cable cars. Gurdon Wattles consolidated all the streetcar lines into the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company (O&CB) in 1901.
The streetcar system was at its peak around 1926-1928, when a plan by outside consultant Ross W. Harris attempted to simplify the system and add logic to the line routing. The new plan was designed to help with automobile traffic, which was an increasing problem, especially downtown with its many different tracks from the days of multiple private streetcar operators. Bus service had been in place since the early 1920s to augment and feed riders to and from the streetcar system. After 1930, buses gradually took over the streetcar routes until the last streetcar ran on March 4, 1955.
Omaha Streetcar Map Showing Service in 1930
Map by Eric Miller, Based on information from “O&CB Streetcars of Omaha and Council Bluffs,” by Richard Orr
Why was the Omaha system shut down? There were multiple factors that caused the downfall over time. Perhaps most important is that the streetcars of old were not the infrastructure investments of today’s modern streetcars, which is a very significant distinction. The tracks were simply installed using lighter rail that wore out quickly over time. The tracks were usually in the center of the street with no platforms (definitely no ADA access to speak of), most requiring passengers getting on and off vehicles in the middle of the street. Buses became an attractive replacement, because they could pick up a person on the curb, could easily be rerouted anywhere (much to the annoyance of developers, property owners, and transit riders who relied on the route being in the same place), and used modern vehicles (compared to the aging streetcars). Also important, buses fit nicely with the city’s plan for one-way street conversion in downtown Omaha while the streetcar system, along with its web of catenary wire above and steel rail below, was a traffic engineer’s nightmare.
You see, as auto traffic increased, especially downtown, it made streetcars more difficult to operate as traffic congestion slowed the streetcar travel time, created safety issues for passengers getting on and off streetcars, and made it challenging for the two to get along and share the streets. The one-way streets were seen as a solution for increased traffic, especially during morning and afternoon rush hours. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the streetcar system was whittled down to just a couple of streetcar routes downtown that fit with the new one-way streets.
While the increased use of automobiles was the main downfall of the streetcar system, there were other challenges, too. As noted earlier, the streetcar lines were not built to last. Most lines were installed in the 1890s, so by the 1930s, they were showing their age, and it was easier to just substitute a bus instead of rebuilding the track. The streetcar vehicles used by Omaha in the end were getting old as the O&CB did not invest in new cars in the 1940s like other systems did. The cars used at the very end were built at the O&CB’s own shops from 1916 to 1918 and numbered 1001-1040 (car 1014 at the Durham Museum is the only known remaining car from this order). Again, it was easier and cheaper to replace the streetcars with modern buses in an attempt to satisfy passenger demands for better transit vehicles.
Most cities discontinued streetcar service around the same time Omaha did although there were some cities that kept their streetcars running: Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New Orleans and San Francisco all had significant electric traction streetcar systems and kept them running through the 1960s and 1970s, a time when the only new rail transit systems were usually expensive subways in large cities. Most of the cities that kept their streetcar running continuously improved their systems to modern standards with rebuilt track, new vehicles and new stations and all (except Philadelphia and New Orleans) are considered light rail systems today.
The Boston Green Line is a Continuous Streetcar Line-Turned Light Rail
Many cities that once had streetcar systems have reintroduced street-running rail transit, whether it be light rail or streetcar systems. This “rail-volution” can partly be attributed to the realization that the streetcar systems of old provided many benefits, which was not completely understood until the lines were removed – the adage of sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Modern streetcar and light rail systems can serve those same dense urban corridors effectively now as they did then but with improvements to infrastructure, safety and operations. Particularly crucial is the development of traffic technology to help streetcars and automobiles to better coexist.
Graphic of the 26th & Farnam Station – HDR and City of Omaha
The Omaha Streetcar line being built now is reusing most of the old Route 45 that ran from Dundee (56th & Underwood) to downtown (10th & Harney), which featured Omaha’s last streetcar run on 3-4-55. And the new streetcar will use electric traction technology (albeit with some “off-wire” capability using on-board batteries). This is where the similarities end. The new vehicles will be modern level-boarding cars with articulated sections so the cars can be longer and take on curves easier. The stops will be more like light rail stations with level boarding platforms, canopies and other enhanced amenities. And the track will be built better with higher standards, be more permanent using heavier rail, owing to the utility work required in advance of laying the track down.
So back to the question proposed at the beginning of this article: can you repeat the past? Not exactly – and perhaps that’s a good thing. There are certainly some elements that can be traced to the streetcars of old and as I tell people, nothing can match the steel wheel on steel rail technology for transit efficiency and reliability. However, the modern Omaha Streetcar will not be a thing of the past but a new investment taking advantage of the latest transit technologies that the city and region will be proud of, helping people that live in and visit the city for years to come.
Eric Miller is a senior transit planner at Felsburg, Holt & Ullevig (FHU), a transportation engineering and planning company that was founded 40 years ago and has been in Omaha since 2004. Eric has a 20-year career in the transit industry that includes work in both the private and public sector and work on planning and implementing bus and rail projects for transit agencies all across the country.