Tonight, 03/30/2020, one of the council people in Cincinnati, Ohio will shut the Cincinnati Bell Connector Streetcar down for 3 months. Reason for this is that the business has fallen off to 250 people riding the cars per week due to the virus.
Also, the Cincinnati Bus Company known as Queen City Metro will give free rides on there buses until the Virus Problem Stops. People riding the bus must enter through the back door and exit from the same door. I think they have roped off the first 6 to 8 sections of the front seats of the bus to keep riders away from the driver.
It is sad to see that the streetcar will have to be shut down. In Kansas City, the sister city to our streetcar, have carried over 2 million people on there Caf Streetcars because they were "free" from the get go. Kansas City order for 4 Caf Streetcars was tacked onto the Cincinnati Connector Streetcar order. Also, Kansas City has had such a success with there streetcar, they have ordered 2 more Caf Streetcars giving them a total of 6 cars. The Cincinnati Council wanted to make our Cincinnati Bell Connector Streetcar "free" but that fell on deaf ears. Kansas City Missouri is in the planning stages for extending there streetcar line.
A comment from the author of the above blog. The people who live in Cincinnati, Ohio are against anything that cost money and would raise there taxes.. When the Cincinnati Bell Connector Streetcar project was started the mayor in Cincinnati, Ohio was Mark Mallory. He thought that connecting the downtown area would spark economic growth in Cincinnati, Ohio. His successor to him was voted into office because he ran on the platform to Stop The Streetcar. Well, he did get the project stopped for 2 months. The project was half way finished. So the current mayor had a team of investigators look into the streetcar project and it would of cost the city of Cincinnati, Ohio millions more to stop the project. So the streetcar was allowed to be finished even though the Cincinnati Council was against the project. In Kansas City, all businesses along there streetcar route pay a special tax to keep the car running....and it has been very successful. No one in Cincinnati, Ohio cares about the streetcar because of the negativity about the project and the money it cost to build it ($150,000 million dollars). Although all the negativity about the streetcar project continues on, the area were the streetcar runs has had an economic boom. When and if, the New Council People that will be voted into office are Positive About The Cincinnati Streetcar, they might build the extension up to the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. BTW. when they were building the Cincinnati Streetcar, they had the seed money of $52 million dollars to build it to the University. BUT, the Governor of Ohio sent the money back to Washington. He also sent $480 million dollars back to Washington and nixed the High Speed Rail Line from Cincinnati to Cleveland, Ohio. The bus and gasoline vehicles win again. Also, if you drive on Interstate I=75 and I=71 through Cincinnati, Ohio, you will come to the Brent Spence Bridge that connects Ohio to Kentucky. The States of Ohio and Kentucky have been fighting over a replacement bridge for 20 years. So, if you need to get over that bridge, you will most likely run into big traffic jams because the new bridge has never been built. No further comment.....
Sincerely yours railbear601
