OllyTransit

This is amazing news. Flights from Portland to CVG likely just dropped $100 for me.

Oh man. Bless them for doing that video. But the forced "TV News Laugh" got old quick.

What "normal public transporation" are you talking about that doesn't have exterior ads? Cincinnati has tons of buses that are totally wrapped in ads. Plenty of cities with light and and streetcar systems wrap the entire vehicle in ads. I may be in the minority, but I'd prefer a 100% wrap vs competing exterior designs. I.e., I don't think the CB wrap looks terrible. I thought it looked bad with the yellow, but in itself, not the worst. But when you have that start clashing with other ads, it starts to look strange. Again, it's whatever. Service starts in 8 days and that's amazing. But branding goes a long way in public perception and I don't want people to turned off from the concept of this as a starter line in any way.

Depends. If the said business traveler lives close to one of the rail stops along the rail line to CVG, I could see them taking it. But otherwise, if the said business traveler lives in the suburbs away from the rail line, it likely wouldn't be worth it to drive to a rail stop, pay to leave their car there for xx days, and then take the rail line to CVG. Depends on the company, but I don't think most business travelers are really all that worried about a $60 cab ride they can expense. To me, it seems far more enticing to target local flyers.

Idk what it is about streetcar projects that attracts all the need for station sponsoring. But, like Travis said, I'm happy that it's going to be in great financial position. Just don't want it to feel gimmicky.

Will the naming rights operate similar to how they do in Portland—where the streetcar pulls up to the stop and announces "Next stop is..12th and Main. Sponsored by Jack Casino. Doors to your right."? Just want to be sure they aren't actually replacing the street names of the stop (aka Next Stop, the Jack Casino Station).

Are the two streetcars that were hit by vehicles going to be ready to operate by September 9?

Can you imagine the premium hike that dude's about to get? I would be curious to know what kind of # we're talking about there. As a side note, I'm pleasantly surprised I didn't hear any gut-instinct reactions out of city hall about this crash. I was just waiting for WCPO to tweet "Cranley criticizes the unsafe streetcar train as a boondoggle. More at 6." Not to say that he still won't—I guess he's got a few more things on his plate at the moment. :roll:

Wouldn't be surprised to see separation features like this in the future: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5192554,-122.6792042,3a,37.5y,271.1h,70.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7WOgo-uqg3KUEPFVjDn7Kg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

People are going to get such a dose of reality real quick. Hopefully not on a wide scale, because I don't want to see service interruptions because of people who don't understand how rails work.

IMO this just cemented (and accelerated) the success of the Cincinnati Streetcar. The amount of people riding it during Oktoberfest is going to be insane. 1) It's the second weekend of operation—which if memory serves me right was even bigger than the launch weekend for Kansas City. 2) Oktoberfest. All the people from the suburbs who haven't actually had a chance to see the Streetcar are going to see it shine first hand. You couldn't ask for a better post-launch promotion of a transit system than Oktoberfest. I'm elated! :clap:

Bad news: the chamber requested to halt the Streetcar service for Oktoberfest. Good news: it's just a precaution as they hope to move the festival's location: http://www.wcpo.com/entertainment/local-a-e/will-oktoberfest-zinzinnati-relocate-to-accommodate-the-streetcar

Just a fun first person tidbit: with the 1st avenue improvement project going on, a lot of the system was out of whack. But scheduled during the same period was the Bike More Challenge (an effort to get companies' employees to commute via bike for May). The results were pretty astounding: 832 ORGANIZATIONS 11,741 PARTICIPANTS 1,959 NEW RIDERS 1,656,061 MILES 203,687 TRIPS

I'll bite. Why wouldn't you assume that? All council meeting discussion seemed to suggest that would be happening. Is there good news brewing?

With the burn-in testing almost complete, what steps are next between now and September 12? I wish we could just start service asap!!