Streetcar

[dcsooner]

Did not know that Little Rock Arkansas has had a streetcar since 2004. Wow, are we behind

[KayneMo]

^ Columbus OH, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Nashville, Austin, Louisville, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Richmond, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, etc. don't have streetcars yet*.

*For some

[Plutonic Panda]

^ Columbus OH, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Nashville, Austin, Louisville, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Richmond, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, etc. don't have streetcars yet*.

*For some

Los Angeles doesn't have one and does NYC have one?

[dcsooner]

^ Columbus OH, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Nashville, Austin, Louisville, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Richmond, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, etc. don't have streetcars yet*.

*For some

The point of the video was the economic stimulus a street car can have. All those cities except maybe Milwaukee, Richmond and maybe Louisville are growing fast with robust population and economic growth. Given the premise that a street car can generate economic growth along it's route my point is that OKC, which is or should be desirous of economic growth could have started earlier.

[RodH]

Milwaukee is laying track for their streetcar. Their cars will be built by the same company as ours and are scheduled to be completed right after ours. They also expect to be in service by late 2018.

[Urbanized]

Milwaukee is also much further along than OKC in its own downtown/urban renaissance; lack of streetcar notwithstanding. While the OKC streetcar is great and is likely to be a transformational project for downtown OKC, having one or not having one is by no means indicative of success or failure for a city.

Little Rock is a great smallish city, and their fun little tourist-oriented streetcar line - which is an old-fashioned "heritage" type that carries about 350 per day - is charming, but it hardly places OKC behind LR form a downtown development perspective. The hyperbolic negativity and trolling in that post is ridiculous.

El Reno has had a similar heritage streetcar line since around 2000. Does that mean they are "ahead" of everybody else?

[Plutonic Panda]

Weren't there plans to bring back El Reno's streetcar?

[shawnw]

I've been in El Reno while the streetcar has been operating in the last year. I'm not sure what it was being used for (e.g. testing, tourist, etc), but it still works.

[whatitis]

Grew up in El Reno. They put in that streetcar while I was in highschool. My family still lives in town. I don't know no anyone that has ever ridden it. It's been 15 years since I've seen it run. And I'm in town frequently due to family.

[KayneMo]

I rode the El Reno streetcar a couple of years ago.

[Urbanized]

El Reno's trolley runs Wednesday through Sunday. Today it is open 10-5.

[LakeEffect]

Grew up in El Reno. They put in that streetcar while I was in highschool. My family still lives in town. I don't know no anyone that has ever ridden it. It's been 15 years since I've seen it run. And I'm in town frequently due to family.

You were in high school in 1908?

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^
The current heritage trolley line was installed between 1999 and 2001.

[shawnw]

did they install new rails or use the existing ones?

[whatitis]

^^^^^^
The current heritage trolley line was installed between 1999 and 2001.

Correct. I graduated in 1999 and the road in front of the high school that year was all torn up. They put in new rails at least for that part. Because prior there were no rails in front of the high school. They had some sheets of plywood over the hole dug out so you could get in and out of the building.

[riflesforwatie]

I walked through the Reno/Robinson intersection last night, and even though track has been laid in a bunch of other parts of town, I don't think it hit me until then that this is really happening. Seeing the curve of the rails through such a huge intersection... There's just something really cool and big city-like about seeing this happen.

[Anonymous.]

Yes, going down and seeing the rails in person is really psychologically stimulating. Just wait until the catenary is being installed.

[Urbanized]

did they install new rails or use the existing ones?

Most if not all was new rail. I toured the project when El Reno hosted the Oklahoma Main Street Conference - or maybe it was the Statewide Preservation Conference; can't remember - and the construction was VERY similar to what we are seeing today in downtown.

[shawnw]

I wonder what the cost comparison is per track mile. Although I guess that was before the whole streetcar re-boom so maybe prices were better then. Makes it kind of a bigger shame we didn't get a downtown rail project in MAPS I. We may have gotten more bang for our buck back then (similar to how we got good back for our buck for the arena), and would possibly be in the middle of some late phase expansions by now...

[OKC_on_mines]

I walked through the Reno/Robinson intersection last night, and even though track has been laid in a bunch of other parts of town, I don't think it hit me until then that this is really happening. Seeing the curve of the rails through such a huge intersection... There's just something really cool and big city-like about seeing this happen.

+1

My favorite is over by the bricktown ballpark. ....feels big league to me

[LocoAko]

https://twitter.com/OKCStreetcar/sta...58360561930245

[LocoAko]

Double post.

[shawnw]

It was pointed out at the scissortail park public meeting last night that this is the only streetcar stop with track on both sides.

[Anonymous.]

Really low light when I took this. But this is the first cable of the catenary that I've seen.

[Mott]

Went to visit Kansas City a while back and while looking for 'Brioche' bakery, stumbled on the KC trolley, and rode the loop. A nice starter system, looking forward to OKC's
The person at Brioche said the trolley was bringing people from the suburbs that wouldn't come, or never have been to Downtown....