Omaha Streetcar

The Omaha Streetcar is a planned streetcar system in Omaha, Nebraska. It is estimated to be completed in 2027.

Background
The Omaha-Council Bluffs streetcar era began operations in 1868. By 1890, the metropolitan area had 90 miles of tracks— more than any city except Boston. The Omaha Traction Company was the dominant private streetcar provider of the time; it was engulfed in repeated labor disputes. By 1955, the city closed its streetcar system in favor of buses.

Planning and development
In 2009, the City of Omaha and Heritage Services developed a Downtown Omaha Masterplan to improve the Omaha downtown area by 2030. The transportation element of the Omaha Master Plan was completed in 2012, and included a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and other non-car transit as part of the transportation blueprints. In 2013 as part of a central Omaha transit analysis, SB Friedman Development Advisors forecast central Omaha development impacts from improved transit. The Friedman analysis compared streetcar projects from Portland, Seattle, and Tampa to BRT alternatives from Cleveland and Kansas, estimating the streetcar increases development by $1billion and the BRT alternative by $262million. However, the Friedman analysis ignored Portland's $725million, Seattle's $1billion, and Tampa's $165million in direct subsidies to developers, calling into question if streetcar economic impact differs from other modes of transportation. The central Omaha transit alternatives analysis was completed in 2014, narrowing down the alternatives to a BRT or streetcar system along Farnam and Harney or a Farnam Contraflow route.

During her re-election campaign in April 2017, Mayor Jean Stothert said voters should decide the streetcar's future, hoping to put it on the November 2018 ballot, "I've always wanted the people to be the final decision," the mayor said. "That's nothing different." In the 2019 to 2020 election cycle Stothert received: $10,000 from HDR Inc, an engineering firm advocating for streetcars nationwide, and $5,000 from Kutak Rock LLP, a legal firm with specialists in Tax Increment Financing (TIF).

Representative Don Bacon was unsuccessful in obtaining an $8 million earmark for the project in 2021.

In 2022, a revised plan was announced by Mayor Jean Stothert and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce's Urban Core Committee.

State Senator Justin Wayne, champion of TIF legislation for 'extremely blighted' areas of the state, questioned the use of TIF for the streetcar saying “For them to extremely blight that area is a slap in the face to North and South Omaha," citing multimillion-dollar investment and renovation projects going on in the urban core of the state's biggest city, “In no way is downtown Omaha extremely blighted.”

At the December6, 2022, Omaha City Council meeting Thomas Rubin, CPA, CMA, CMC, CIA, CGFM, CFM, a transit industry senior executive, consultant, and auditor with four decades experience in transportation and an Omaha native provided a presentation. Rubin states the Omaha Rapid Bus Transit (ORBT) excels over the proposed streetcar line on almost all standard transportation measures: going over three times as far west to serve more potential riders and destinations, faster operating speed, and more trips/day– and at a far lower cost that does not require hundreds of millions of dollars of additional taxpayer capital. Rubin also highlights, per HDR analysis, the Omaha streetcar achieved most of the development potential already since ORBT began operations two years ago with two-thirds of the growth development ability of the proposed streetcar in the development corridor under study. On December13, 2022, the Omaha City Council approved $440million in bonds to fund the streetcar, $360million TIF bonds and $80million from lease purchase bonds. The City of Omaha published a plan to pay back the $600 million needed, $440 million principle plus $160 million in interest, by: first, diverting $421 million from $2.2 billion in new TIF subsidized projects in the streetcar district;   second, diverting $71 million from existing development in the streetcar district;  and third, diverting $115 million from existing TIF subsidized projects by extending those TIFs 5 years for a total of $607 million in diverted property taxes. Subsequently, investor Warren Buffett, an Omaha resident and owner of Berkshire Hathaway, published a letter to the editor in the Omaha World-Herald to oppose the street project. He cited its cost and inflexibility compared to a bus system.

The streetcar would run on a 3 mile route from Cass to Farnam on South 10th Street, Farnam west to 42nd Street, and back to 10th Street on Harney. The streetcar was originally expected to be operational in 2026, and free for all riders. On June12, 2023 streetcar officials stated plans to hire an outside company to run the streetcar, as Omaha has no one capable, and moved the beginning of operations to spring 2027. While future expansions north, south, and west in Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa, have been proposed, Omaha city planning stated an alternatives analysis has yet to be completed on any proposal and would take a total of 8 to 10 years once started.

Utility relocation work along the route began in September 2023.

At a June 18, 2024 news conference Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert and Omaha Streetcar Authority Chairman and developer Jay Noddle updated streetcar corridor costs to $459 million, with $39 million of the increase to be paid by city sewer fees, and a potential cost-sharing agreement with Nebraska Department of Transportation to cover about $21.5 million in bridge replacement costs.

Rolling stock
In February 2024, it was announced that the line will use six CAF Urbos streetcars similar to those currently in use in Kansas City and Cincinnati. Funding was approved in May of that year.