Grow Omaha
Transportation

This column has previously covered streetcar utility work in general, so let’s take a look at a critically important upcoming project: the 38th & Farnam Street area. The top priority of streetcar construction work is to limit the impacts of construction as much as possible for the nearby businesses and residents. One of the keys is to keep Farnam Street open as much as possible. However, for this project, a complete closure for a small amount of time will actually reduce longer-term impacts. In this case, it will be necessary to completely close Farnam Street between 37th Street and 38th Avenue (just west of 38th Street) for almost four weeks. This closure begins Monday, October 20.The complete closure will enable the project to be finished faster. A partial closure of Farnam Street in this area would have meant dealing with reduced accessibility for over three times as long. There will be two options to move through the area during this time: Dodge Street to the north and Dewey...

Construction wraps up on the Kansas City Main Street extension as cars are testing the full serviceAs underground utility improvement work continues on the Omaha streetcar corridor, we still have another three years of various forms of construction, including the long-anticipated mainline track construction that will begin in early 2026. Since mainline construction starts soon, it is a good time to take a look at other streetcar systems that have recently been under construction to see what businesses along the lines have done to get through the challenging time and into the more rewarding service opening. We can then use some of these good practices from other cities in Omaha (or maybe we already are), and this will also give us a better idea of what is coming down the track. Streetcar construction has different impacts to communities compared to other forms of transit. One thing in common among all types of transit construction are the stops or stations, which is how people get on...

The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development team has announced the Midtown Small Business Resiliency Grant Program. This business support program is designed to provide financial assistance to small businesses that are most impacted by construction from the Omaha Streetcar. The program is based on extensive coordination with property owners, the City of Omaha and other stakeholders. The goal has been to distribute funding in an equitable and efficient way that helps businesses weather the disruption and remain viable through the construction period. This process has taken months of effort and has culminated in a program that, similar to Chamber economic initiatives, can make a big difference for businesses that have already invested in the Omaha community. While the City of Omaha can’t pay for business impacts and does not offer a relief fund for businesses impacted by disruptive projects, the City is supportive of the initiative. The goal of the grant program is to...

Grow Omaha is launching a new feature called Streetcar Topics. This will be an update on the streetcar development process that will feature something new going on with the project with a little more explanation of why the news item matters to the overall system. Streetcar Topics was the name of the monthly newsletter of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company (O&CB), It’s appropriate to carry on that tradition, and it fits with the aim of this update that is planned to occur about once a month. For this edition of Streetcar Topics, we will cover one of the current utility projects along the corridor, the East Utilities Project. This includes sewer, water and electrical work on Harney and Farnam (between 28th and 10th streets) and the downtown loop, where the streetcars will return back west via Harney Street, 10th Street, Capitol Avenue, 8th Street, and Farnam Street. Work started at the 10th & Capitol Avenue intersection in early August. As of this writing,...

Now that I’m working as the City of Omaha’s Streetcar Operations Manager, a role where I will oversee the implementation of streetcar service for the Omaha Streetcar Authority, the focus of my Grow Omaha column will change. I’ll focus on news and information about Omaha’s rail and help readers understand how streetcars have impacted other cities and regions – along with ours – as we get closer to opening in 2028. This month, I’m sharing stories from a visit I took to the Pacific Northwest earlier this year, when I rode streetcars in Tacoma, Seattle and Portland. We can learn a lot by studying successful transit in other cities as we plan Omaha’s streetcar project. How have other cities approached extensions? How long does building an extension take? What neighborhoods do they serve and what are the impacts to development and transit ridership? Let’s take a closer look. There are 21 U.S. cities with streetcar systems (there are more if you count cities that have converted their...

The New Mexico Rail Runner at the Alvarado Transportation Center in Albuquerque, New MexicoA concept that is often talked about is a rail transit connection between Omaha and Lincoln. I hear this especially with the Omaha Streetcar project as some folks will say that we really need to look at connecting Omaha and Lincoln with a fast and more frequent transit option. Recall from my earlier article on transit technologies that the appropriate modes for transit between Omaha and Lincoln include commuter rail and intercity/regional bus, a service that provides more frequency than intercity passenger rail (think the current Amtrak California Zephyr, which is one trip a day in each direction). Regional or interregional bus service (connecting cities within a large region and/or multiple regions) provides more frequent service than intercity bus with stops that have good connections to existing transit, such as in Omaha and Lincoln. Commuter rail usually shares an existing freight railroad...

Concept of a Multimodal Transportation Center at the Burlington StationAs cities increase the availability of transportation modes, especially transit and in downtown urban core settings, a common investment is the building of a multimodal transportation center. Such a facility is designed to connect multiple modes of transportation such as buses, trains, bicycles, and pedestrians into a convenient hub that promotes efficient transit. These facilities have been around U.S. cities for a long time, as the first railroad stations were in essence multimodal stations where local transit and intercity passenger rail connected. The concept saw a resurgence in the late 20th century as cities, seeing the effects of how freeways and parking lots gutted downtowns a few decades before, returned to a focus and prioritization on transit and active transportation modes that could promote more development and better land use. One of the earliest modern multimodal transportation centers that I...

Demand Response Vehicle in Taos, New MexicoYou may have heard the buzz around town, there is a new transit technology about to drop in our city. I am actually not talking about the streetcar, but something called “Demand Response.” Also known as “Microtransit” or “On-Demand,” this type of transit, similar to the streetcar, is something that has actually been around for a long time. It’s just that this is the first time that it will be implemented by Omaha Metro Transit and packaged together with an efficient and reliable reservation and routing system. Before continuing on, let’s dig into what this transit service is exactly. Demand-response transit is a flexible, on-demand transportation service that provides “curb-to-curb” service based on passenger requests. While it sounds like a taxi service based on this description, what makes it transit is the ability to group similar rides to make the service more efficient. I like to tell people that it is similar to using an elevator at an...