Grow Omaha
Transportation
Grow Omaha Streetcar Topics: Public Open House December 11
The Omaha Streetcar Authority is hosting an open house to share updated information about ongoing utility relocations, upcoming track construction and other information on the new transit service. The open house will be on Thursday, December 11, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m at the Durham Museum. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the project and ask questions of the construction team. There will be no formal presentation, and registration is not required. Attendees can visit anytime between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. The open house displays will be located “trackside” on the lower level of the museum in the Trish and Dick Davidson Gallery. The Durham Museum is home to one of two known remaining former Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway cars – Number 1014, which is displayed on the lower level. This car was built in 1919 at the 24th & Ames car barn. After retirement from passenger service in 1955, car 1014 spent time as a cabin at the Twin Brooks Bible Camp north of Omaha....
Grow Omaha Streetcar in Focus: Omaha Streetcar Vehicles are “Cutting the Cord”
A deeper look at how Omaha’s streetcars will operate half the route off-wirePhoto of a Charlotte Streetcar Off-WireAs discussed in a previous Grow Omaha article, Omaha’s streetcar vehicles take advantage of some of the latest technology in rail transit. At the core, the streetcar vehicle is a solid piece of transit mobility that has been around for about 150 years. Over that time, there have been myriad changes and improvements to make streetcars one of the most high-tech transport vehicles out there. This article focuses on a key technology component of the Omaha vehicles: the ability to operate without being connected to an overhead wire – in essence, cutting the cord. The Omaha Streetcar Authority (OSA) is having six new streetcar vehicles built by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (known as CAF) to provide service on the Harney/Farnam corridor, planned to begin in the Fall of 2028. The 10-minute service most of the day will require four cars, with two spares used for...
Grow Omaha Streetcar Topics: Fast Tracking Construction on Farnam
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...
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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...
Different Types of Transit and What that Means for Omaha
I cringe when I hear someone mention the idea that we need to build light rail between Omaha and Lincoln… not because I don’t agree that more and better transit is needed between the two cities, but because of the lack of understanding of what the most applicable mode of transit should be operated (the correct answer here is intercity bus and commuter rail). Another favorite of mine is when someone questions the need for a streetcar along Farnam/Harney with the ORBT service on Dodge Street, perhaps without realizing that there is currently a local bus route on Farnam/Harney. The purpose of this article is to arm you with the information needed to intelligently explain what optimal type of transit mode could be applied for specific uses in the Omaha metro area as well as have a better understanding of what is discussed by people when referencing transit studies. And yes, there will be a quiz later, in the form of future articles that dig deeper in specific transit corridors! First, a...
What is the Right Transit Service to Eppley?
Welcome to the first transit article for the new Grow Omaha news site! I am planning to write articles on relevant transit issues that cover a wide variety of topics and explain some of the latest activities, especially with the streetcar project as it unfolds. While I have a broad list of items to cover in the future, if there is anything you would like me to cover in the future, definitely drop me a line and let me know. First, a little background about myself – I am a native of the Omaha area (grew up in Bellevue), and my entire 20-year career has been focused on transit planning. I spent 19 of those years in Denver, where most of my work was focused on planning and implementing the Regional Transportation District (RTD) FasTracks program. I currently work as a private consultant, and my latest projects cover Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), streetcar, light rail and intercity rail for communities in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Oklahoma. Being the first transit article, this may end up...