
I was part of a peer review of the Oklahoma City Streetcar system last year when I spent a couple of days riding (and walking) the entire route several times. Our team came up with several suggestions to improve the system.
The OKC Streetcar opened in December 2018 and has very similar operations as those planned for Omaha in terms of the number of stops, vehicles required to operate and length of the system. Some differences include routing with the additional loop train route and that it charges fares similar to the rest of the city’s transit system.
First, a look at its routing, which appears to serve a lot of major destinations between downtown and midtown Oklahoma City. It is not particularly easy to figure out. Downtown Oklahoma City is a largely flat area, which enables planners and designers to introduce twists and turns in the route.

Oklahoma City Streetcar Map
The OKC Streetcar was built as part of the Metropolitan Area Projects 3 (MAPS 3) capital improvement initiative to encourage walkability and circulation while serving economic development purposes. MAPS 3 is a capital improvements program that uses a one-cent sales tax from 2010 to 2017 to pay for a debt-free project to improve the quality of life. Other projects included a new convention center, downtown park, riverfront improvements, trails and sidewalks.
In terms of downtown vibrancy and development, the streetcar has been a monumental success. I have family in Oklahoma City and travel there every few years. I have personally witnessed the rebirth of downtown to which the streetcar contributed.
The streetcar runs 6 a.m. to 12 midnight most days, starting later on Saturdays and Sundays and running later on Fridays and Saturdays. Frequencies are every 10 to 15 minutes. This is similar to the service planned in Omaha. An extra streetcar runs a separate “Bricktown Loop” route on Fridays through Sundays, serving OKC’s popular downtown entertainment district. The streetcar is operated by a private contractor, Herzog, and is part of the EMBARK transit system.
OKC in Bricktown, with downtown looming in the background
Streetcar ridership has been steady at about 700 passengers per day, which works out to approximately 12 boardings per service hour. That is decent ridership for a local bus route but should be higher for a high-capacity rail transit service. While the somewhat complex route does not help with the ridership issue (the stops in the middle of the route have the lowest boardings), it can’t be easily changed. Offering zero fares could be a way to encourage more ridership, as witnessed in other cities.
Cincinnati is a good example of how free fares work to a streetcar’s advantage. When this system opened in September 2016, it charged the same fare as a local bus. Fares were suspended during the pandemic, then eliminated altogether. That caused ridership to increase above pre-COVID numbers. The chart below shows the average daily ridership in Cincinnati from opening in 2016 through present.
Ridership trends in Cincinnati
Going back to Oklahoma City, our peer review found that fares were only covering about 1 percent of the operating costs and that it actually cost more to collect the fares than the money the fares generated. Therefore, it is not worth charging a fare for this kind of service. That’s a good policy for Omaha to follow.
The OKC Streetcar system was very clean and reliable, and so it would be good if this service could be accessible to more people. I was impressed that each stop and all vehicles were spotless, which compared favorably to the stops and vehicles in DC that could have used more attention.
As with every streetcar system, there are always lessons that can be employed for the Omaha Streetcar system. Overall, Omaha’s direct and easy to understand route will be a huge benefit. The decision to not charge fares should also set up the system well. This will allow us to focus on the finer details, such as providing reliable service and having a clean property that is welcoming to passengers. The Omaha Streetcar will fit in well with the other public recently completed improvements in downtown and midtown plus all the recently announced new private developments.
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.