Omaha Regional Transit Expansion

Omaha turned a corner in terms of finally “getting real” with transit when it opened the Omaha Rapid Bus Transit (ORBT) on November 18, 2020. This service provides frequent and fast bus transit along the Dodge Street corridor between Westroads and downtown, replacing and streamlining the old Route 2. It did not take long for the ORBR to surpass the Route 2 ridership, even in a post-COVID environment.

So what do I mean about “getting real” with transit? I mean a real investment in transit, making something more permanent, doing more than just running a basic bus route with stops denoted by a metal sign on a pole (and perhaps a concrete pad and bench or shelter). The ORBT project featured stops with platforms that included amenities usually only seen at rail transit stations, a dedicated fleet of buses, some exclusive lanes, and Transit Signal Priority. Transit projects like these make a real difference in our communities, cities, and region!

We need more transit projects (and the ensuing service that they provide) in Omaha so that we can provide better service, encourage more development, and get people excited about transit. This is one of the reasons why the current streetcar project is so important – it is a big deal for Omaha.

So what are the next big deal transit corridor projects for the Omaha area and what should we look to work on next to complement our growing metropolitan area and the increased development? What will continue to grow our transit system, connect to other routes, make service easy and reliable for existing and new passengers, and increase ridership while making it simple for people to get around without relying on a car?

I could and do talk a lot about ideas that are “out there” – making real investments to transit and providing more high-capacity bus and rail corridors. Like moving beyond the streetcar to a fully light rail system for Omaha or commuter rail to Lincoln and Fremont. For now, let’s check in with existing plans and see what we should be paying attention to.

The latest plan by Metro is MetroNEXT, completed in April 2022, geared for completion in 2030 with elements for completion beyond that timeline. It details several service improvements and future corridors to implement ORBT-like service:
https://www.ometro.com/metronext/

The MetroNEXT plan groups future enhanced transit corridors by Tier 1 and Tier 2 and while the tiers are not specifically defined or given a target time for completion and start of service, it is suggested that Tier 1 corridors are ready to implement soon with the Tier 2 corridors needing more study and development to happen. The 24th Street corridor between the North Omaha Transit Center and South Omaha Transit Center will soon be part of an enhanced transit planning and environmental study that Metro received a $1.6 million federal US Department of Transportation discretionary grant for (RAISE, Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity). MetroNEXT notes that the North Beltline corridor, connecting the North Omaha Transit Center and the UNMC, could be BRT or light rail. The Council Bluffs First Avenue/Broadway corridor has been studied in the past, is now part of a Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study, and could be BRT or streetcar (Council Bluffs has been very set on the latter technology).

While the Fort Crook Road corridor from South Omaha to Offutt Air Force Base is listed as a Tier 2 corridor, the City of Bellevue and MAPA have done extensive studies including one going on right now (the Fort Crook Road Transit Planning and Environmental Feasibility Study, although there is no information on the status of this, which should have started late last year). The last plan for this, Fort Crook Road 2040, was complete in July 2022 and recommended a BRT line extending from the South Omaha Transit Center (connecting with the 24th Street corridor) to Platteview Road via Railroad Avenue and Fort Crook Road.

Completed after the Nebraska Legislature passed the law enabling a Regional Metropolitan Transit Authority (RMTA), but before Metro officially transitioned to the RMTA (the new board will be elected in November and begin in January 2025), the MetroNEXT study largely stays within the City of Omaha and does not recommend many other transit corridors. For that, we need to look at other studies.

Sarpy County completed a Transit Feasibility Study in August 2017 that detailed transit improvements to be completed within the next 30 years (2047) including the Fort Crook Road bus service, 72nd/84th Street enhanced bus service, a high-capacity bus route along Highway 370 between Bellevue and Gretna via Papillion, and a number of local and express bus routes.

Looking beyond the Omaha area, a Lincoln-Omaha Intercity Bus Feasibility Study was completed for the Nebraska Department of Transportation, Public Transit in May 2020. The includes a concept for implementing three intercity bus routes, two on I-80 and one on Highway 6, which was estimated to cost about $3 million a year to operate.

And for commuter rail between Lincoln and Omaha, this has not been looked at since the Nebraska Transit Corridors Study was completed in December 2003 that recommended a fleet of all new railcars with few stations, which resulted in a very high cost per passenger, making the project look unrealistic. A path forward is to start with regional bus service (Lincoln is building a new downtown transit center with space for such a service to terminate on that end), build ridership and connections, and then phase in commuter rail service when and where it makes the most sense.

For other big deal transit corridors in Omaha that can make a big difference, the Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s Urban Core Strategic Plan from March 2022 offers a compelling vision. Beyond showing maps and descriptions of BRT and streetcar extensions, the plan also discusses commuter and light rail as part of its “Total Mobility System.” The plan shows potential light rail lines along the north and south Belt Lines, along Leavenworth Street, and heading up north to Eppley Airfield. You may recall that in my previous article, I suggested light rail as being a more appropriate transit mode to/from the airport, if we as a community decide that we need to connect Eppley with rail transit. The plan also suggests commuter rail to Lincoln and Fremont as well as intercity passenger rail to Chicago, which would supplement the existing daily Amtrak California Zephyr service (this corridor is currently part of Amtrak’s ConnectUS plan). The commuter rail and light rail service is recommended to connect to other transit modes in Omaha at a multimodal transit center near the current Amtrak station at 10th Street.

So where do we go from here – what are the most important corridors to focus on next? Obviously, finishing the MetroNEXT plan and it’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 corridors is a great start, although we need to move much faster than the time it took to implement the ORBT Dodge Street corridor. The new RMTA will help with that, although it will require the communities coming together to prioritize these projects.

What is important is developing a Transit Development Plan for the Omaha region – these plans typically look 20-25 years into the future and prioritize projects while also detailing potential funding sources. Such a plan can put all of these concepts together in one package, so that we can get moving with building and implementing these individual projects that will work for the greater transit system, which is a similar process that other great metropolitan areas have done in implementing their transit systems, from smaller regions like Salt Lake City and Austin to larger ones like Denver and Seattle. The path forward is getting set, let’s go!