Streetcar

[mdeand]

The contractor placing track is working on Saturdays. These are photographs from this morning. I've never seen any Project 180 work on Saturdays.
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[LocoAko]

This is a total outrage. Setting this up to fail. Very disappointed.

Totally absurd to have no/little Sunday service, both days of the weekend should be absolutely essential to run on!

Yep. Ugh. Nice "big league city" decision...

[betts]

This is a total outrage. Setting this up to fail. Very disappointed.

I agree completely. I spoke rather vehemently to this issue at one of the committee meetings and got nowhere.

[dankrutka]

Who can citizens complain to to argue for Sunday service? It really is such a short-sighted decision. Surely if there is citizens outcry this can still be changed...

[shawnw]

Your council person to begin with. I regularly email mine and will be doing so again about this...

[Urbanized]

It's unspoken, but I think there is concern that providing streetcar service on Sunday while bus service remains so limited on the same day would open the City up to another type of criticism. It's a bad look to fund what many people still think is a gimmick/toy - I do not feel this way, personally - while there is a dramatically underserved transit-dependent population elsewhere in the city. This is a case of the poor overall state of transit in our sprawling city producing a negative ripple effect.

That said, I believe it is an unsustainable position. The convention/tourism/visitor industry by itself will require Sunday service and create a very large amount of riders. I suspect that there is likely to be sponsorship or some other funding source brought to bear that will pay for it, outside of the transit budget. Just guessing here; no specific knowledge.

By the way, at the Mayor's Development Roundtable the mayor of Kansas City discussed the outrageously successful KC streetcar service. It runs on Sundays, and it's also free, every day. Lots of influential people took notice. Hopefully this can be overcome.

[king183]

This is a total outrage. Setting this up to fail. Very disappointed.

It's a stunning and outrageous decision. All the evidence says it needs to operate on Sunday to succeed, but the city ignored that, ostensibly to save a few dollars.

Let's be clear: This is setting up the streetcar to fail and it's setting up all other forms of mass transit to fail. When the streetcar inevitably has very low ridership to due to cost, lack of service on Sunday, and poor routing decisions, the public at large will view it as an indictment against the ideas of those who are calling for additional mass transit (e.g., RTA).

Really disappointed in our decision makers here. Unfortunately, these poor decisions are becoming more commonplace.

[Anonymous.]

I was downtown out and about yesterday (Sunday) and there were people everywhere. The lack of service on this day is a joke.

I also think the Friday and Saturday runs should stop @ 3am, not 2am.

[Ross MacLochness]

I was downtown out and about yesterday (Sunday) and there were people everywhere. The lack of service on this day is a joke.

I also think the Friday and Saturday runs should stop @ 3am, not 2am.

agreed. Esp. during summer, there are loads of pedestrians out on Sunday.

[midtownokcer]

agreed. Esp. during summer, there are loads of pedestrians out on Sunday.

The volume of people in and near the Myriad Gardens on Sundays is astounding. It was jammed pack the past three weekends. I imagine many of them would use the streetcar given Sunday service.

[Pete]

The volume of people in and near the Myriad Gardens on Sundays is astounding. It was jammed pack the past three weekends. I imagine many of them would use the streetcar given Sunday service.

Absolutely correct.

There is so much going on down there I can't even keep up but I'm down there almost every weekend and there are people everywhere and usually some sort of festival, run, or music even with food trucks and all types of things.

It's amazing how well that park is program and utilized, especially with 3 sides of it being nearly undeveloped and quite dead.

[OKCisOK4me]

I messaged OKC Streetcar on Twitter about the corner pieces since everything being done now is the straight sections and I got this reply on June 2nd:

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. The corner sections of track (Factory Bent) will be installed soon. The corner at Sheridan/Joe Carter will be installed around the end of June. The corner at Joe Carter/Reno will be install shortly in July. The Joe Carter/Reno corner is a little more involved due to the signal light being relocated.

[Urban Pioneer]

The corner pieces at Joe Carter were being installed last week. I will post pictures of them to the Facebook page. Regarding Sunday Service, I wrote a lengthy letter to the council on this matter. The earlier posts are correct. This has nothing to do with lack of monies to pay for Sunday streetcar service. It entirely has to do with lack of funding for Sunday bus service and the negative contrast that funding one but not the other would create. It is time to fund both. They just don't know how to do it without cutting some unrelated city department budget.

And let's be clear, after working on this for a decade or more, meaningful seven-day-per-week public transit funding, is not a priority of our city management/manager. If it were, this issue would have been long been resolved. It's time to fix the problem City of OKC.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^^^
The bent sections at Sheridan/Joe Carter were delivered a couple of weeks ago and are sitting in the track bed at this location, partially installed.

[Urbanized]

Oops, UP beat me to it.

[OKCisOK4me]

Ironically, I was viewing Pete's aerial pic of the Steelyard project yesterday and noticed that the bent section on Sheridan & Joe Carter was indeed in place. Ahead of schedule...? And if so, good!

[Bellaboo]

I noticed today the west side of the Myriad Gardens, on the east side of the street is being dug out with a huge backhoe. I would think this would be for more tracks. ?

[Anonymous.]

^Yes that is for track.

[CCOKC]

Robinson south of 10th street is also being dug up for tracks.

[shawnw]

Is it the tracks or just the utility relocation ahead of tracks or the hole-punches for the overhead wire supports? Those are three separate activities at times.

[Urbanized]

Having become very familiar with the sequence over the past few months in Bricktown, I can tell you that what is happening south of 10th on Robinson is 100% track bed.

[shawnw]

sweet! for some reason I was thinking it would logically progress out from bricktown

[Urbanized]

This page is an excellent source for up-to-date construction info (though it doesn't say that the section we are discussing is track bed yet...but it is...): https://www.okc.gov/government/maps-...struction-news

Also on that page you can click a link and subscribe to e-mail construction updates, or just click here to do so: https://www.okc.gov/government/maps-...struction-news

[shawnw]

I get the construction updates, just haven't read the last couple, everything is moving so fast!

[shawnw]

Does look like utility work, though?

Robinson Avenue: June 26 - July 11

The utility crew will move over to Robinson Avenue between NW 10th Street and NW 9th Street.
Traffic will be northbound only for the duration of this work.
The closure on NW 9th Street is for the Cox utility work.