Expand the streetcar to the OU Health Sciences Center & the Meridian Hotel corridor should be a priority . There are a lot of conventions in that area (OUHSC) now with the 194 room Embassy Suites.

https://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/w640-157c996429413e4a2c49791e996b8348.jpg

The Adventure District (Zoo & Hall of Fame Stadium) has the old KATY railroad line; could we get something running in that area--something vintage.

Nm double

Thank you, UP, for the information. It is very depressing hearing that.

I am glad I am not alone in the "free fares" camp. I really hope we can come up with a solution that fosters success for the streetcar.

The posters above echo what I have heard from people about the streetcar who are normally not "in the know". An overwhelming amount of people I've spoken to have no idea that the streetcar is a modern vehicle. Almost everyone thought it was going to be the oldschool tourist looking ones that you would see in San Francisco.

That alone shows the complete lack of awareness of this entire project. These same people are the ones you need to persuade to try it out, and right now the overwhelming sentiment is "this annoying construction all over downtown for this stupid tourist-trap streetcar that only homeless will ride". And these are young, trendy people - the same ones who engage in all-the-things downtown/midtown/uptown.

This is a critical perspective, and I think this is so wrong. People ought to value something they've never used? Here's this great tool we spent a ton of money on, and even though no one targeted to use this phase of the streetcar currently uses public transit, we'll just expect them to naturally change their behavior and start spending money to do so, in addition to the car they already own, because, hey, they ought to value this?Embracing public transit requires a big time behavioral change in OKC. We need to do everything possible to remove barriers to entry. That mentality seems just so irresponsibly out of touch.I think to address your concerns they will be probably be doing a free introductory period spanning over several months. This view isn't unique to this specific Transit Director. Arguably he is doing a great job stretching every dollar to make EMBARK a much better system.

I was thinking about what the differences are in administration between cities who have streetcar and transit systems. My own father was a system administrator which is probably a big reason I am passionate about making our system better.

If we're contrasting against Kansas City for example, really these contrasts shouldn't be focussed on the Transit Director specifically. But the "buy in" ideology means that there isn't a resistance to no barrier access. One could argue that this has a great deal to do with the personalities involved in city management above the agency.

Mayor Sly James gets it. He sees the value of streetcar being free and accessible. His leadership on those issues is catapulting their city forward and attracting the very same young people OKC says it wants.

We are essentially between mayors and we have a City Manager who's investments in transit have been modest, to say the least. It is simply not a forefront priority over other city services.

There is more to this story. I wrote a long post about it but it disappeared when I was trying to re-log back in. Will try to write more later if people want to know more.

There is more to this story. I wrote a long post about it but it disappeared when I was trying to re-log back in. Will try to write more later if people want to know more.
I can't speak for others, but I'd love to know more, UP.

I know we all point to the KC streetcar as a huge success in terms of ridership, and a large part of that is likely the lack of fares. I was talking to a friend a while back (6 months?) who lives part time in KC and he said the viewpoint up there was that it was hardly a success, and they couldn't find and won't vote in new funding to expand the line.

I'm sure I could look this up to verify, but there are a bunch of other folks on here much more in the know. Has anyone else heard that out of KC?

...

There is more to this story. I wrote a long post about it but it disappeared when I was trying to re-log back in. Will try to write more later if people want to know more.

I feel your pain, I lost a post, it was only 4 lines long though :), but I would also love to know more. Truly appreciate all you're doing for this, and wondering what we, as citizens, can do to help the city "do the right thing" for the streetcar to survive/eventually thrive and to help the city progress (I'm in Shadid's district, so I'm guessing contacting him with my thoughts would probably be the first step)?

KC is such a tough comparison to OKC (and really to many cities). It was born on third base. When recounting their success, everyone focuses on fares. They rarely talk about why the system succeeds; Kansas City has an almost uniquely linear layout and this allowed for essentially a straight line to connect all major entertainment venues and areas in the inner city where development was already being focused. It would have taken monumental mismanagement for that operation to fail. Not an apples to apples comparison for virtually any city.

Are they installing track on Gaylord in front of the train station for future use at the intermodal hub? I noticed that they are laying a turn at Gaylord and Sheridan, but I don't know if they will finish that now or tear up Gaylord again when that track has to be laid. I don't see that stretch on a map anywhere.

Are they installing track on Gaylord in front of the train station for future use at the intermodal hub? I noticed that they are laying a turn at Gaylord and Sheridan, but I don't know if they will finish that now or tear up Gaylord again when that track has to be laid. I don't see that stretch on a map anywhere.

Yes, future use.

speaking of future use, I wish they would continue the track down on Robinson from Sheridan to Reno to connect with the existing alignment - providing route options and/or capacity/frequency.

I also wish every intersection/turn would pre-build the turn or straight-away that wont immediately be used but could allow for seamless expansion. Just imagine when we look to expand but have to shut down the system because intersections need to be torn up and rebuilt. I hope this was thought out (im not in OKC to verify); I can immediately think of the following as potential intersections for pre-build expansions: 4th and Broadway, N 10th Robinson to Broadway, 11th and Classen Dr, 4th and Hudson, 4th and Sheridan, Robinson and OKC Blvd, Broadway and N 11th. UP, any thoughts?

Found this on Facebook... It's photos of OKC's first streetcar which will run on the the Bricktown loop with testing starting this spring.

Note the pinkish color that coordinates with that short loop. The longer loop will be blue.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/streetcar021118a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/streetcar021118b.jpg

Is it just me or does the heart logo look pretty much exactly like AirBnB upside down?

Is it just me or does the heart logo look pretty much exactly like AirBnB upside down?

https://a0.muscache.com/airbnb/static/logos/belo-200x200-4d851c5b28f61931bf1df28dd15e60ef.png

speaking of future use, I wish they would continue the track down on Robinson from Sheridan to Reno to connect with the existing alignment - providing route options and/or capacity/frequency.

I also wish every intersection/turn would pre-build the turn or straight-away that wont immediately be used but could allow for seamless expansion. Just imagine when we look to expand but have to shut down the system because intersections need to be torn up and rebuilt. I hope this was thought out (im not in OKC to verify); I can immediately think of the following as potential intersections for pre-build expansions: 4th and Broadway, N 10th Robinson to Broadway, 11th and Classen Dr, 4th and Hudson, 4th and Sheridan, Robinson and OKC Blvd, Broadway and N 11th. UP, any thoughts?

We are doing these things. Turn-outs are pre-staged and our chief engineer with URS was directed by me and others to maximize opportunities to ease points of juncture. We just recently had a long discussion about 11th and Dewey for example. The track is laid out with expansion to the NW in mind. The same for 4th and Broadway and others.

Not an apples to apples comparison for virtually any city.

If the KC comment is being directed at me, keep in mind I am not making "apples to apples" comparisons to them. However, I think they got it right about the fares. It should be free. period.

Recent development moves west, film row (Sheridan Avenue) near the 21c museum, Jones Assembly & West Village Apartments should be an area for light rail streetcar expansion. A spur or extension could be routed to the area toward Classen.

https://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/r620-40f0a6df8fcfc544eb58f5b184496be8.jpg
Didn't realize the massive route of the streetcar in the 1930s.

It's massive ridership surprised me:

"From their beginnings around 1902, use of Oklahoma City street cars reached their zenith in 1919, carrying a total of 17.5 million passengers, up from the 9.5 million passengers in 1915. Ridership fell in 1924 to just about twelve million due to increased automobile travel. In 1925, the railway company put its first buses into operation, further detracting business from the streetcar system. By 1930, bus service was available throughout the city, including a route north along Walker Avenue, along the Jefferson Park neighborhood. Street car use rose briefly again in 1930 to seventeen million. Obviously the future of public transportation was moving ever closer toward buses exclusively.[23] Street car service continued in Oklahoma City until 1946, when the decision to convert to strictly a bus system forced the sale of assets related to inner-city street car lines.[24]"

Endnotes
23. Hare and Hare, Report of the City Planning Commission: Oklahoma City. Oklahoma 1930. p.41.
24. Oklahoma Transportation Company Collection, "Minutes, 1946," Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

If the KC comment is being directed at me, keep in mind I am not making "apples to apples" comparisons to them. However, I think they got it right about the fares. It should be free. period.

Not at all directed at you. In fact, it was said in pre-emptive defense of the efforts of you and the committee on which you've served. Even if free - and I agree, it should be free - I don't expect the OKC streetcar to be as overwhelmingly successful (at least from a raw ridership standpoint) as the Kansas City streetcar, which is held up by everyone here and nationally as the standard-bearer for successful streetcar implementation. When people use KC as the standard I think it sets up OKC (and most other streetcar lines) for failure.

I doubt the KC line was any more brilliantly conceived or managed than most; it just benefits from unusual geography. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Downtown OKC does not have the same layout, so you all did the best you could with what you had to work with. I'm sure if I had been on that committee I would have come to the same conclusions as you did. I think it will be a very big success; especially for those who live/work/play/visit downtown. But I don't expect that it will have the same type of numbers as KC, and I think we need to prepare for that in advance and understand that if we don't see those types of numbers it's still perfectly OK. We shouldn't burden it with the KC comparison.

If the KC comment is being directed at me, keep in mind I am not making "apples to apples" comparisons to them. However, I think they got it right about the fares. It should be free. period.

Tell us again, why should this be free, and say... water..... should be charged for? Why does the government owe us free services? Why not free medicine? Or free continuing education? Why not free train to Ft. Worth?

Free for a time to prime the pump...sure. Free forever? Why?

How is Cincy's streetcar doing? It was almost done when I was there October 2015 (doing test runs I believe).

Tell us again, why should this be free, and say... water..... should be charged for? Why does the government owe us free services? Why not free medicine? Or free continuing education? Why not free train to Ft. Worth?

Free for a time to prime the pump...sure. Free forever? Why?

I'm not sure what UP's thinking is, but when I say "free" in this case I don't necessarily mean "taxpayer-funded." I'd be fine with some combination of transit, BID and/or sponsorship dollars to make the experience to the user free or at least keep price from being a barrier to use.

By the way, the user experience of streets, trails and sidewalks is also free, though the government subsidy - even just within greater Oklahoma City - is in reality in the billions.

Is it just me or does the heart logo look pretty much exactly like AirBnB upside down?

yeah, but the air bnb logo looks like the dig out of our new core to shore park lake...

Not at all directed at you. In fact, it was said in pre-emptive defense of the efforts of you and the committee on which you've served. Even if free - and I agree, it should be free - I don't expect the OKC streetcar to be as overwhelmingly successful (at least from a raw ridership standpoint) as the Kansas City streetcar, which is held up by everyone here and nationally as the standard-bearer for successful streetcar implementation. When people use KC as the standard I think it sets up OKC (and most other streetcar lines) for failure.

I doubt the KC line was any more brilliantly conceived or managed than most; it just benefits from unusual geography. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Downtown OKC does not have the same layout, so you all did the best you could with what you had to work with. I'm sure if I had been on that committee I would have come to the same conclusions as you did. I think it will be a very big success; especially for those who live/work/play/visit downtown. But I don't expect that it will have the same type of numbers as KC, and I think we need to prepare for that in advance and understand that if we don't see those types of numbers it's still perfectly OK. We shouldn't burden it with the KC comparison.

Great comments and insight into your thinking. I agree with all of it. Yes, they have a great layout and it is enviable. One of the toughest constraints about OKC is the love affair with super-blocks and simply the fact that downtown is sprawling.

Tell us again, why should this be free, and say... water..... should be charged for? Why does the government owe us free services? Why not free medicine? Or free continuing education? Why not free train to Ft. Worth?

Free for a time to prime the pump...sure. Free forever? Why?


Fully-subsidized Public Transit in OKC would be a game changer. If we found a way to make using public transit "free" to ride it would set our city apart in a big way, help alleviate the inequity caused by our terrible urban planning, and be a massive economic development and employment tool.

It would take a fraction of economic development dollars to change the way a many of us live simply to take these existing public assets and make them more accessible to all. The access to businesses and employment, positive effect to health and environment, better use of land, and social interactivity in downtown alone would be tremendous.

The streetcar system should be like publicly funded sidewalks and streets. Not everyone agrees with me about the buses but I can see the massive socioeconomic benefit of subsidizing those too.

Fully-subsidized Public Transit in OKC would be a game changer. If we found a way to make using public transit "free" to ride it would set our city apart in a big way, help alleviate the inequity caused by our terrible urban planning, and be a massive economic development and employment tool.

It would take a fraction of economic development dollars to change the way a many of us live simply to take these existing public assets and make them more accessible to all. The access to businesses and employment, positive effect to health and environment, better use of land, and social interactivity in downtown alone would be tremendous.

The streetcar system should be like publicly funded sidewalks and streets. Not everyone agrees with me about the buses but I can see the massive socioeconomic benefit of subsidizing those too.

Interesting.... it is so valuable, but people won't pay a few bucks to use it and developers and employers along the route won't be taxed higher for it. There is no faith that it can stand on its own merit, I guess.

If the system cannot pay for itself or get close, the city will not expand it, they will not maintain it well, and eventually it will have problems.

Again, we already have free (actually highly-subsidized) access to highways (actually called FREEways by many), city streets, bicycle trails and sidewalks. And nobody pays the per-mile true cost of their automobile. All of this is highly subsidized by taxpayers.

Freeway is a term used to describe the free flow nature of the road given it is a fully controlled access facility.

Driving on them isn’t free even if you don’t have to pay a toll. You still have to pay for gas, you pay taxes on that gas. You have pay for a car which you also pay thousands of dollars in taxes on. You have to pay for maintenance if the vehicle, the products you buy also have taxes on them. The companies that ship those products and cars pay taxes and fuel taxes as well. You also have to pay drivers license fees as well. Whatever the excuse for those funds may be. In order to drive unless someone is giving you a free car and paying to fuel and if they paid for your drivers license(which isn’t that expensive anyways but for the sake of argument) then you are paying to use that freeway.

The maintence of the buses and rail cars have to be paid for somehow. Even with fares, I don’t think there is a single rail line in the country that turns a profit except for the NEC. Besides, with more and more cars becoming extremely conservative on fuel, new fuel alternatives, and ridersharing services, I beleive every single transit agency has reported a drop in ridership except for PATH(Jersey City). Remember, that’s even with the rail expansions that have been opening up left and right.

Wait until autonomous cars start hitting the market. We’re still 5-10 years away from their true entry into the market and we’re seeing cities and states are already scrambling to write laws and prepare for their arrival. I honestly believe they will put the final nail in the coffin for rail based travel at least for inner cities.

Freeway is a term used to describe the free flow nature of the road given it is a fully controlled access facility.

Driving on them isn’t free even if you don’t have to pay a toll. You still have to pay for gas, you pay taxes on that gas. You have pay for a car which you also pay thousands of dollars in taxes on. You have to pay for maintenance if the vehicle, the products you buy also have taxes on them. The companies that ship those products and cars pay taxes and fuel taxes as well. You also have to pay drivers license fees as well. Whatever the excuse for those funds may be. In order to drive unless someone is giving you a free car and paying to fuel and if they paid for your drivers license(which isn’t that expensive anyways but for the sake of argument) then you are paying to use that freeway.

The maintence of the buses and rail cars have to be paid for somehow. Even with fares, I don’t think there is a single rail line in the country that turns a profit except for the NEC. Besides, with more and more cars becoming extremely conservative on fuel, new fuel alternatives, and ridersharing services, I beleive every single transit agency has reported a drop in ridership except for PATH(Jersey City). Remember, that’s even with the rail expansions that have been opening up left and right.

Wait until autonomous cars start hitting the market. We’re still 5-10 years away from their true entry into the market and we’re seeing cities and states are already scrambling to write laws and prepare for their arrival. I honestly believe they will put the final nail in the coffin for rail based travel at least for inner cities.

You do pay...a portion - certainly not enough.

http://media.kansascity.com/livegraphics/2016/streetcar/streetcar-map.small.jpg
Kansas City's streetcar system runs 2.2 miles along Main Street connects the River Market to Union Station/Crown Center with 16 stops to get you to your destination.

http://images.metro-magazine.com/post/M-MET9KCStreetcar-KCATA-240-HDR.jpg
Kansas City started with a 4 vehicle fleet, in 2017 they purchased 2 new streetcars from CAF USA at a cost of $11.8 million the original supplier of the first four vehicles.

http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs100/1112278312786/img/226.png?a=1116266556388
OKC's streetcar system will run two routes traveling 6.9 miles will link Bricktown, Automobile Alley, Midtown, the Central Business District with 22 planned stops in the area known as Core to Shore.

http://www.brookvillecorp.com/Files/Admin/News%20Photos/Oklahoma-City---BROOKVILLE-Liberty-Streetcar-WebRes.jpg
OKC has purchased 7 streetcars from Brookville Equipment Corp., of Pennsylvania.

Allow OKC's streetcar to get off the ground; there are some pedestrian concerns that we will need to address as we cover 4 districts in the core.

so nothing on Cincy's streetcar? is it having problems that no one wants to bring up?

Freeway is a term used to describe the free flow nature of the road given it is a fully controlled access facility.

Driving on them isn’t free even if you don’t have to pay a toll. You still have to pay for gas, you pay taxes on that gas. You have pay for a car which you also pay thousands of dollars in taxes on. You have to pay for maintenance if the vehicle, the products you buy also have taxes on them. The companies that ship those products and cars pay taxes and fuel taxes as well. You also have to pay drivers license fees as well. Whatever the excuse for those funds may be. In order to drive unless someone is giving you a free car and paying to fuel and if they paid for your drivers license(which isn’t that expensive anyways but for the sake of argument) then you are paying to use that freeway.

The maintence of the buses and rail cars have to be paid for somehow. Even with fares, I don’t think there is a single rail line in the country that turns a profit except for the NEC. Besides, with more and more cars becoming extremely conservative on fuel, new fuel alternatives, and ridersharing services, I beleive every single transit agency has reported a drop in ridership except for PATH(Jersey City). Remember, that’s even with the rail expansions that have been opening up left and right.

Wait until autonomous cars start hitting the market. We’re still 5-10 years away from their true entry into the market and we’re seeing cities and states are already scrambling to write laws and prepare for their arrival. I honestly believe they will put the final nail in the coffin for rail based travel at least for inner cities.

Should you ever care to challenge your own worldview, this would be a great place to start: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/driving-true-costs/412237/

so nothing on Cincy's streetcar? is it having problems that no one wants to bring up?

Yes, it is having lots of challenges. Widely considered a massive failure on every level; the opposite of the revered KC implementation.

Yes, it is having lots of challenges. Widely considered a massive failure on every level; the opposite of the revered KC implementation.

I had heard that, I was hoping someone here smarter than me on these subjects can expand why, and how OKC can avoid such failure.

OKC can learn from cities like Kansas City & Cincinnati who have implemented streetcars ahead of us.

From what I can find, Cincinnati had an average daily ridership of 1,693 (470/mile) from July 2017 - June 2018, while KC's was 5,645 (2,566/mile) from Jan 2018 - Dec 2018.

Should you ever care to challenge your own worldview, this would be a great place to start: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/driving-true-costs/412237/
I do every day and I have read it’s an interesting piece for sure.

Edit: to also add I should point out nowhere in my post did I say no new improvements were needed.

From what I can find, Cincinnati had an average daily ridership of 1,693 (470/mile) from July 2017 - June 2018, while KC's was 5,645 (2,566/mile) from Jan 2018 - Dec 2018.

Rough, I'd like to hear from Jeff or any other streetcar enthusiasts or experts what has gone wrong in CIN

Street car is expected to arrive at 11am this morning, for those who are interested.

Traffic snarls to continue until summer

By: Brian Brus The Journal Record February 12, 2018

OKLAHOMA CITY – Downtown traffic pressure will be relieved slightly this summer as many street projects are tied up, city Public Works Director Eric Wenger said.

Several blocks have been detoured or reduced to single lanes due to a combination of Project 180, streetcar rail installment and private development, Wenger said. Although the MAPS 3-funded modern streetcar has gotten a lot of media attention lately, he said, private projects are taking up just as much street space.

The latest such closure has been at Robinson and Park avenues due to the refurbishment of the First National Center. In January, pieces of the building’s façade fell to the street and sidewalks. Utility work is now being done at the intersection.

Then there’s the space around BOK Park Plaza, 499 W. Sheridan Ave., which recently started accepting Bank of Oklahoma employees. That project has been underway for about two years. On the north side of downtown, there’s the Contemporary Arts Center, 1200 N. Broadway Ave. And the 21c Hotel at 900 W. Main St. has caused its share of traffic diversions as well.

“Plus there are numerous, small, incremental blocks around vacant buildings that need to be modernized,” he said. “There’s a lot of private development that’s not public work at all. It’s all part of the revitalization of downtown.”

The next adjustment drivers will face is the partial closure of Broadway and NW 10th Street as rail is laid for the streetcar. Kristine Torkelson, a spokeswoman for the ADG firm handling the project, said each section of the rail takes several weeks of construction, and that can be stretched depending on where utilities are installed and whether electric power lines are needed above the streetcar route. Intersections are a special case as well because some of the work can be covered temporarily by thick metal plates to allow traffic to pass. The Broadway and 10th Street intersection work will begin shortly and will disrupt access east to the Interstate.

Torkelson said rail construction is still expected to be complete by the end of the year. The cars will then have to be tested before allowing riders.

City Hall has been upgrading everything on the streets and between buildings downtown for several years as part of Project 180, a $180 million public works project driven by the construction of the Devon Energy corporate tower.

Some of that work on Gaylord Boulevard will be completed in about a month. Cold temperatures have slowed concrete work, Wenger said. The only other package of P180 tasks to complete are now underway at Main Street near Gaylord and Broadway. Another stretch of road will be affected on N. Robinson from Sheridan to Park Avenue.

“That work has been suspended because there’s other private and streetcar work in the area,” he said.

The streetcar that has been headed south on the back of a truck is due to arrive in OKC at 11AM this morning.

They are doing a big media event, so expect lots of photos and reports of it being off-loaded and placed on the tracks near the maintenance facility.

Rough, I'd like to hear from Jeff or any other streetcar enthusiasts or experts what has gone wrong in CIN

No Sunday service, actually stopping service during big events instead of adding service, hiring an operator that wasn't performing O&M, late and unreliable streetcars, a Mayor that is not supportive... to name a few things.

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2016/12/cincinnati-has-a-streetcar-problem/510143/

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/streetcar-problems-in-cincinnati-provide-lessons-to-be-learned/article_61903ee2-52f2-5f05-a04d-f86c963ff7eb.html

From what I can find, Cincinnati had an average daily ridership of 1,693 (470/mile) from July 2017 - June 2018, while KC's was 5,645 (2,566/mile) from Jan 2018 - Dec 2018.

Oops, it should be Jan 2017 - Dec 2017 for KC, not 2018. Cincinnati's is an estimate through June 2018.

I’ve followed the Cincinnati/KC thing reasonably closely through a lot of the urban planning, walkability and transportation blogs plus experts I follow on social media and have heard the same explanations LakeEffect mentions. Also have heard their trains have had extreme reliability issues (probably attributable to the O&M issues mentioned).

Fortunately we don’t have to worry about buy-in from the local political powers that be.

I also think we have avoided the “doesn’t go where people want to go” issue.

But the things that do concern me are the lack of Sunday service and frequency/reliability caused by congestion. If you read those links I posted it mentions that KC - in addition to being the linear route I talked about - benefits from being on generally wide streets which allow it to operate separate from much of the automobile traffic and avoid congestion. Cincinnati, OTOH, is often bogged down on congested streets and can’t hit its service times. So the public gets frustrated and starts finding alternate ways to get around. Cincinnati fixed some of these issues with signal prioritization, but can’t of course change the route itself at this point.

I think these are things that should very much concern OKC. Traffic congestion downtown is extremely pronounced on event nights plus Friday and Saturday nights, especially in nice weather. These should be prime times for the streetcar. But I really worry about places like 10th Street, Bricktown, etc. I hope there is a proactive approach taken to - for instance - banning horse carriages from streetcar routes and possibly creating temporary protected streetcar lanes on busy nights via movable Jersey barriers, signalization, even traffic cops. I’d love to see formalized streetcar priority on streets like Sheridan and Reno in Bricktown or on 10th Street.

I really think the only way this thing has the type of success we’d like to see is to go all-in with a traffic plan that prioritizes streetcar reliability and service interval.

I hope OKC learns from those issues because if they don't it's going to be embarrassing.

The first Streetcar has been delivered, see the following for a short video of it down by the maintenance facility.

https://twitter.com/DowntownOKC/status/963464112398393347

https://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/r620-40f0a6df8fcfc544eb58f5b184496be8.jpg
Didn't realize the massive route of the streetcar in the 1930s.


It's massive ridership surprised me:

"From their beginnings around 1902, use of Oklahoma City street cars reached their zenith in 1919, carrying a total of 17.5 million passengers, up from the 9.5 million passengers in 1915. Ridership fell in 1924 to just about twelve million due to increased automobile travel. In 1925, the railway company put its first buses into operation, further detracting business from the streetcar system. By 1930, bus service was available throughout the city, including a route north along Walker Avenue, along the Jefferson Park neighborhood. Street car use rose briefly again in 1930 to seventeen million. Obviously the future of public transportation was moving ever closer toward buses exclusively.[23] Street car service continued in Oklahoma City until 1946, when the decision to convert to strictly a bus system forced the sale of assets related to inner-city street car lines.[24]"

Endnotes
23. Hare and Hare, Report of the City Planning Commission: Oklahoma City. Oklahoma 1930. p.41.
24. Oklahoma Transportation Company Collection, "Minutes, 1946," Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.


Proposal: "OKC 2046", a campaign to get us back to near the rail density we had in 1946 by 2046.

Proposal: "OKC 2046", a campaign to get us back to near the rail density we had in 1946 by 2046.

Agree! Work to include our unique districts like Paseo, Stockyards & Asian districts.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/3050156415_9903bd5477.jpg
Next streetcar expansion ( approximately 3 miles) should focus on Film row: 21c Museum, Jones Assembly & West Village Apartments; add the unique Asian district.

Only if it's built out to Classen (even if it doesn't then go up it) for that expansion up to CHK that was previously referenced in one of the rail threads as being preliminarily discussed.

She lives!

https://www.facebook.com/okcstreetcarcommittee/videos/1042272292582348/

We were there. It was truly a sight to behold! Watching the way they unloaded it off the transport truck and onto the tracks was fascinating. Those guys had the whole thing masterfully choreographed, making a logistical very big deal look like it was simple. Here's how it went down once they pulled up:

First they unhooked the transport truck. The flatbed was lower in the front than the rear so the front of the streetcar was slanted downward toward the tracks. Then they put a metal track-sized ramp up to the flatbed aligned with the wheels of the streetcar. The truck was relocated to the rear of the streetcar. After the crew did some preliminary work unhooking various chains and other things, a winch-type thing was hooked to the rear of the streetcar. Then they started inching the car forward, very slowly, onto the ramp and down toward the tracks. It made a little thump sound when the final set of wheels left the ramp and the whole thing settled onto the track itself. The winch hook was removed and the streetcar rolled its way into the maintenance facility.

One down, what is it, six to go?

We were there. It was truly a sight to behold! Watching the way they unloaded it off the transport truck and onto the tracks was fascinating. Those guys had the whole thing masterfully choreographed, making a logistical very big deal look like it was simple. Here's how it went down once they pulled up:

First they unhooked the transport truck. The flatbed was lower in the front than the rear so the front of the streetcar was slanted downward toward the tracks. Then they put a metal track-sized ramp up to the flatbed aligned with the wheels of the streetcar. The truck was relocated to the rear of the streetcar. After the crew did some preliminary work unhooking various chains and other things, a winch-type thing was hooked to the rear of the streetcar. Then they started inching the car forward, very slowly, onto the ramp and down toward the tracks. It made a little thump sound when the final set of wheels left the ramp and the whole thing settled onto the track itself. The winch hook was removed and the streetcar rolled its way into the maintenance facility.

One down, what is it, six to go?

Yep! Six to go. I talked to the delivery guys from Brookville. They are literally turning around and grabbing the next one.

I can just imagine the crew moving that streetcar off the truck and ultimately into the maintenance facility, all on walkie talkies coordinating the effort, then when it reaches its resting place you hear this crackle through the earpieces: "The dolphin is in the Jacuzzi... I repeat, the dolphin is in the Jacuzzi."

And everyone rejoices and high-fives like a NASA crew upon splashdown.

The complete arrival and unloading video can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/OKCStreetcar/

Why didn't they just bring both if two are ready now vs one at a time? Also, out of curiosity, why didn't they come by rail?

If it came by rail it would likely have to be driven from the rail-cart to a semi-truck, then off-loaded again to get it onto our rail.

I don't know if the construction facility is connected to rail, so they might have to load it onto a semi-truck as well, only to turn around and off-load it to get it on the rail. That's probably a lot of moving around from bed to bed just to get it here.

Although, if we did have a connected system in the future between the streetcar network and regular rail, there might be an easy system to have it arrive on rail, just pull it from the bed to the rail right below it, then just switch it to the streetcar grid from there.

The streetcar system should be like publicly funded sidewalks and streets. Not everyone agrees with me about the buses but I can see the massive socioeconomic benefit of subsidizing those too.
Okay, lay the tracks and let the users provide their own equipment and we will compare to highways. And seriously...comparing sidewalks and streetcar systems. That’s a real, real stretch.

Why didn't they just bring both if two are ready now vs one at a time? Also, out of curiosity, why didn't they come by rail?

It's a special trailer used for loading and unloading. Probably economically better for that reason alone.

That’s a real, real stretch.

I quite frankly don't give a sh*t if you think it is.