"spend that money on the neighborhoods instead"

Wow. @CB_Connector just tweeted that FOUR of the five streetcars are currently out of service due to various mechanical issues.

^I feel like they could fix the "no heat in the operator cab" by keeping the door open or adding a portable electric heater temporarily.  Maybe there's a code issue, but this seems fixable in the short term while they wait for CAF.

Back in the day, the early streetcars didn't even have an enclosed cab for the motorman.  It's not that they didn't have heat, they didn't even have windshields, or a seat, and they worked something like 12 hour shifts.  I think there were some stories of a poor motorman's hand getting frozen to the controls in icy conditions.  I'm not sure what's worse though, being exposed to the elements like that, or having to stand the whole time.

Looks like they only operated with one streetcar on Thursday night very briefly...according to this article a second streetcar went back out at 11pm to do one or two more laps:

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/three-of-five-streetcars-out-of-service-thursday-night

I've been becoming increasingly disappointed in the lack of usability of the streetcar.  The ticket machines are complete garbage and constantly are breaking down.  The streetcars rarely seem to get anywhere near 12-15 minute headways.  There is no way to track the individual cars and after being open for months the signage still doesn't work.  I can't seem to use it for commuting, because it is so unreliable.  For example, this morning after waiting ten minutes at a stop an empty one with no signage blew by me.  At that point I just walked the route twelve blocks to work and never even saw a streetcar.  This is pretty much the norm nowadays and not the exception to the rule.  It seems like traffic issues are only a small part of the problem.  Poor quality hardware and equally bad operational management seems to eclipse any traffic issues.

So, Breanne and I along with our 2 seven year old's waited yesterday at stop #2 (between 4th & 5th St. on Main) for ~20 mins., give or take. We parked in OTR. It was freezing and was too much for the boys, so we decided to walk back. I suggested we walk back along the route so that we can catch the streetcar at another stop. We ended up walking the whole way back without seeing the streetcar! As a proponent of this system, this is a huge problem. I'm not surprised from the backlash as others who experience the same that are either on the fence or against the system.

 

If there was some reason that it wouldn't have circled back, please feel free to correct me, but we did see one stopped at Central Parkway.

I used the streetcar several times over the weekend and had no problems overall. Part of this however is having access to better real-time arrival tracking. While not reactivated at the stations yet, the tracking has become more reliable, but is useful only if you know how to find it.

 

The Transit App is useful most of the time when trying to track streetcar positions. In the event they are not displayed there I have been using the BusTracker on Metro's website: http://bustracker.go-metro.com/hiwire?.a=iRealTimeDisplay

 

Its really cumbersome to navigate on a mobile device because you have to scroll all the way down the list to get to the streetcar (100) without accidentally activating some other bus route.

 

Additionally, I've been buying streetcar passes on the CincyEZRide app in bulk and just activating them when I catch a streetcar. It saves on the hassle and frustration of the TVM's.

 

Also the app Bus Detective is completely worthless for the streetcar because it somehow confuses the streetcar stops for a TANK bus route.

 

I think once the real-time screens are reactivated it will be more useful however its really frustrating to hear supporters, visitors and others in the neighborhood being discouraged because of its unreliability. These are problems that can turn people off from a transit option for a long time. We were promised 12-15 minute headways and we are getting 20-30 instead. Real-time arrival and TVM problems aside, this is the core issue with the system to date.

One characteristic of the system that isn't working in its favor when the arrival times aren't working and there are only two streetcars operating is that there don't seem to be many stations where the streetcars can be seen approaching in the distance.  I recall that in Portland there were a few spots where you could see them coming from 10+ blocks away, but in Cincinnati I'm not sure there's a spot where that is the case.  For example, at the Rhinegeist station, the light-up board of the streetcar looks about the same as the light boards on the bus routes that use that street, so the crowds are regularly tricked into thinking a streetcar is coming when it isn't. 

 

A downside to splitting the tracks between parallel one-way streets is that people waiting for a streetcar heading in the direction they want to go never see streetcars going in the opposite direction.  Seeing trains head in the opposite direction during a long wait answers the is this thing running? question.  It's too late now but I do think that the system would have benefited from having both directions travel on 12th St. I can't imagine that the Central Parkway station is getting much use at all.  I never heard an explanation but I suspect that Central Parkway was used because putting both tracks on 12th would have meant building the Race St. tracks on the west side of that street and for whatever reason they didn't want to do that.  Also, the way the system has a turnaround at a single point (12th & Race) limited the amount of special track, since the whole intersection of 12th and Walnut would have had to have been rebuilt in the way 12th & Race was with a 6-8 week closure. 

 

Bottom Line...they need to buy a sixth streetcar and have 3 streetcars running off-peak, 4 during peak hours, and they need to expand peak hours to include Saturdays and other special events. 

 

 

 

 

Bottom Line...they need to buy a sixth streetcar and have 3 streetcars running off-peak, 4 during peak hours, and they need to expand peak hours to include Saturdays and other special events. 

 

 

That is not the bottom line at all, in my opinion. I'll just say that those folks who have maintained that real-time tracking was not important, have now been proven wrong. It is an important component of a well run system, and absolutely critical for us, during this period when we have traffic issues we're trying to iron out.

 

The problem is that we lied to people, and are continuing to lie to them again with each and every message board. And JYP[/member] is exactly correct - these are issues that can turn people off from transit, for a long time. One thing that I will never understand or forgive, is why SORTA refuses to simply replace the message board with a note that says Streetcars are normally expected every XX-YY minutes, where XX and YY are numbers they get from data. This was a critical error.

 

Right now the only optimistic way I can spin this is - it's good there is low ridership at the present, because the less people we contaminate with this system as it is currently operated, the better off we are, in terms of ultimately being able to expand.

 

I am so pissed off about this it makes my head spin. How were these problems not made urgent with CAF and transportation engineering during the one year testing phase? Were they not carefully paying attention to timing issues and the whole operational experience during this period?

 

In order to turn this around, we need someone to step up, big time, and take responsibility for fixing it. I do not see that happening at present. Not from council, not from SORTA, not from City staff. The only thing I see happening right now is to position Transdev as the fall guy for what frankly looks like a complete lack of system operational planning.

^Of course I agree with all of that...it's just pretty obvious that the bunching shouldn't be happening (which, amazingly, still is), and that for whatever reason they seemed to have not tested the real-time arrival signs at all during the testing period.  If they did and they realized that they weren't working, they should have never been turned on. 

 

I'll repeat something I noticed the first week is that the station signs should indicate when the last train runs and when the system is shut down for the evening.  All it has to say is "Last train - 11:50pm" and after it shuts down at midnight "Service Resumes at 6:30am".     

We need someone to step up, big time, and take responsibility for fixing it.

 

I nominate Jim Uber.

 

 

 

One characteristic of the system that isn't working in its favor when the arrival times aren't working and there are only two streetcars operating is that there don't seem to be many stations where the streetcars can be seen approaching in the distance.  I recall that in Portland there were a few spots where you could see them coming from 10+ blocks away, but in Cincinnati I'm not sure there's a spot where that is the case.  For example, at the Rhinegeist station, the light-up board of the streetcar looks about the same as the light boards on the bus routes that use that street, so the crowds are regularly tricked into thinking a streetcar is coming when it isn't. 

 

A downside to splitting the tracks between parallel one-way streets is that people waiting for a streetcar heading in the direction they want to go never see streetcars going in the opposite direction.  Seeing trains head in the opposite direction during a long wait answers the is this thing running? question.  It's too late now but I do think that the system would have benefited from having both directions travel on 12th St. I can't imagine that the Central Parkway station is getting much use at all.  I never heard an explanation but I suspect that Central Parkway was used because putting both tracks on 12th would have meant building the Race St. tracks on the west side of that street and for whatever reason they didn't want to do that.  Also, the way the system has a turnaround at a single point (12th & Race) limited the amount of special track, since the whole intersection of 12th and Walnut would have had to have been rebuilt in the way 12th & Race was with a 6-8 week closure. 

 

Bottom Line...they need to buy a sixth streetcar and have 3 streetcars running off-peak, 4 during peak hours, and they need to expand peak hours to include Saturdays and other special events. 

 

 

 

 

Because of SCPA student drop-offs and pick-ups, city traffic engineers wouldn't let both directions on 12th

I'm hearing that they are getting pretty close to having the real time arrival signs working. (Not making excuses, just letting everyone know.)

 

Also, if we see ridership numbers return to fall 2016 levels in the spring of 2017, and we're putting extra streetcars in service to meet the demand, we're going to start setting ourselves up for long-term maintenance issues. We needed to own 5 streetcars so that we could have 3 running at peak and 2 off-peak, considering that one is a hot spare and one is either chartered or potentially out of service. If we're regularly putting 4 in service and putting more wear and tear on an extra vehicle, we really need to purchase one or two more streetcars before our options expire.

I'm guessing that TransDev is increasing frequency now -- I'm hearing streetcar bells every ten minutes or so now -- so they can claim that, "See, we made it more frequent, and it didn't matter."

Because of SCPA student drop-offs and pick-ups, city traffic engineers wouldn't let both directions on 12th

 

I don't get that.  So instead of having one set of tracks on two sides of SCPA, as is now the case to the north and east, there would have only been one set of tracks on the north side of the school and none on the east. 

 

 

 

 

I'm guessing that TransDev is increasing frequency now -- I'm hearing streetcar bells every ten minutes or so now -- so they can claim that, "See, we made it more frequent, and it didn't matter."

 

Wish they would have done it this morning.  My tushy was nearly a solid block by the time I got to work ;-) .

Also, if we see ridership numbers return to fall 2016 levels in the spring of 2017, and we're putting extra streetcars in service to meet the demand, we're going to start setting ourselves up for long-term maintenance issues. We needed to own 5 streetcars so that we could have 3 running at peak and 2 off-peak, considering that one is a hot spare and one is either chartered or potentially out of service. If we're regularly putting 4 in service and putting more wear and tear on an extra vehicle, we really need to purchase one or two more streetcars before our options expire.

 

Kansas City's special taxing district has been bringing in more revenue than expected so they were able to buy two more streetcars without any controversy.  They only have four so they no doubt will run into trouble before streetcars 5 & 6 show up in 2019.  I think the real risk we're running here in Cincinnati is if we only have 2-3 available in the summer for the big festival weekends like the Taste, Riverfest, etc. 

 

Because of SCPA student drop-offs and pick-ups, city traffic engineers wouldn't let both directions on 12th

 

I don't get that.  So instead of having one set of tracks on two sides of SCPA, as is now the case to the north and east, there would have only been one set of tracks on the north side of the school and none on the east. 

 

 

 

 

 

  ^ I never did either

This was hidden in Paul Daugherty's article today after all the Bengal's stuff. It's a jab at the streetcar.

 

"Took the empty streetcar loop all the way around, getting off at Fountain Square for hot chocolate at Graeter’s. It was sad. The car was empty, save for us. We had to wait 15 minutes for its arrival. The recorded PA announcing next stops was completely screwed up. Maybe we’ll try it again in the summer, if the kinks are ironed out. But it’s certainly not on the Must Do List. Which is the only way it’s going to survive, given it doesn’t go anywhere people work."

 

From:

"Doc: I'm starting to believe Marvin Lewis"

 

http://cin.ci/2i0jPsn

And just so people know, he took the streetcar on last Thursday night which was one of the coldest nights of the year.

"Doesn't go anywhere people work"? Nobody works in the CBD?

It's amazing how little so many local media characters know about the city, even people who have been here a long time.  Daugherty has been here since about 1990.  I've lived other places and as a transplant it's easy to cover more turf in 6 months than natives have throughout their lives.  But there is absolutely no excuse for media transplants not having curious minds and not seeing things for themselves. 

In the five years I lived in Cincinnati, I visited more neighborhoods/obscure pockets and learned more about the region's history than any of my friends who had lived in the tristate for 20+ years. It's disheartening that Daughterty'a view is that it's purely a tourist attraction - it's not The Beast, it's a streetcar! Transit is rarely a "must-do" on any tourist's list unless you're one of those weird urbanist people.

This was hidden in Paul Daugherty's article today after all the Bengal's stuff. It's a jab at the streetcar.

 

"Took the empty streetcar loop all the way around, getting off at Fountain Square for hot chocolate at Graeter’s. It was sad. The car was empty, save for us. We had to wait 15 minutes for its arrival. The recorded PA announcing next stops was completely screwed up. Maybe we’ll try it again in the summer, if the kinks are ironed out. But it’s certainly not on the Must Do List. Which is the only way it’s going to survive, given it doesn’t go anywhere people work."

 

From:

"Doc: I'm starting to believe Marvin Lewis"

 

http://cin.ci/2i0jPsn

 

This is not new with Daugherty. Over the years, he's taken other shots at rail when he was reporting from other cities.

It's amazing how little so many local media characters know about the city, even people who have been here a long time.  Daugherty has been here since about 1990.  I've lived other places and as a transplant it's easy to cover more turf in 6 months than natives have throughout their lives.  But there is absolutely no excuse for media transplants not having curious minds and not seeing things for themselves. 

 

Yeah, that's one of the saddest things about Greater Cincinnati. We have all these amazing assets and most life-long Cincinnatians have never seen them because their life doesn't extend beyond the strip mall nearest to their house, except for coming downtown maybe once a year for sports.

 

There was apparently some event last week where a bunch of P&G employees downtown rode the streetcar around, and the vast majority of them had never been to Findlay Market before. That's insanity.

SORTA threatens streetcar operator’s contract

 

 

The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority has told Transdev, the company that operates the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar, that its service needs to improve or its contract will be terminated.

 

In a letter to Transdev president Kenneth Westbrook, Cincinnati Metro CEO and general manager Dwight Ferrell said, “Transdev has failed to perform its services in compliance with the contract. Therefore, unless these breaches are cured within 90 days after receipt of this notice, SORTA may terminate for default the terms and conditions of (the) contract.”

 

More below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/12/19/sorta-threatens-streetcar-operator-s-contract.html

I commented on that Enquirer article saying it wasn't sad considering how cold it was and Daugherty advised me to check overall ridership numbers. 

I commented on that Enquirer article saying it wasn't sad considering how cold it was and Daugherty advised me to check overall ridership numbers. 

 

Just be grateful that Peter Bronson is long-gone. 

 

This seems like a very useful feature given what is going on here:

https://medium.com/transit-app/better-real-time-transit-data-is-coming-to-your-city-finally-a38ed0e90084#.czsrk6k9s

 

Though because Cincinnati isn't a "cool city", you aren't going to get it anytime soon.  (I recommend tweeting them and asking for it in Cincy).

What is a cool city?

Its a snide comment I make in regards to how Cincinnati gets passed over too much for films, concerts, trial runs of stuff etc.

 

Cincinnati is pretty cool, but I get the feeling national level orgs don't notice it.

Concerts I can see since there's too many other midsize cities around for all of them to get all of them. Films though... wasn't that over by the '80s?

Not for Foreign and Indie movies.

Took the streetcar today to do some Christmas shopping. Started at Maverick Chocolate Company, then headed down to Mica 12/V. Jumped back on to get to Graeters and The Booksellers on Fountain Square. Walked up to Doscher's Candy on West Court Street, then got back on the streetcar at 12th and Vine to get off at the Brewery District stop and walk home.

 

It cost me $1 total, I didn't have to find parking at my various stops, and the Metro bus tracker site worked wonderfully (despite not being mobile friendly). Transit app was not showing the streetcars when I was out, but everything worked really well. It's how the streetcar should work.

Not for Foreign and Indie movies.

 

The new theater at Oakley Station plays Indian movies but not Indie movies.  100+ Indian UC students uber over there from the Mont Michelle and Forum Apts every week.  Meanwhile, the Esquire, which is within walking distance of the Mont Michelle and Forum complexes, screens a half dozen indie (but not Indian) films every week. 

 

Took the streetcar today to do some Christmas shopping. Started at Maverick Chocolate Company, then headed down to Mica 12/V. Jumped back on to get to Graeters and The Booksellers on Fountain Square. Walked up to Doscher's Candy on West Court Street, then got back on the streetcar at 12th and Vine to get off at the Brewery District stop and walk home.

 

It cost me $1 total, I didn't have to find parking at my various stops, and the Metro bus tracker site worked wonderfully (despite not being mobile friendly). Transit app was not showing the streetcars when I was out, but everything worked really well. It's how the streetcar should work.

 

Would be a good LTE of Enquirer

This seems like a very useful feature given what is going on here:

https://medium.com/transit-app/better-real-time-transit-data-is-coming-to-your-city-finally-a38ed0e90084#.czsrk6k9s

 

Though because Cincinnati isn't a "cool city", you aren't going to get it anytime soon.  (I recommend tweeting them and asking for it in Cincy).

 

The transit app's twitter account is followed by Cincy Bell Connector, Cincinnati Metro, and KC Streetcar, so I bet they're aware of the situation.

A-lot of movies have been made in Cincinnati the recently. Don't be surprised to see the connector on one of these films. ;)

This seems like a very useful feature given what is going on here:

https://medium.com/transit-app/better-real-time-transit-data-is-coming-to-your-city-finally-a38ed0e90084#.czsrk6k9s

 

Though because Cincinnati isn't a "cool city", you aren't going to get it anytime soon.  (I recommend tweeting them and asking for it in Cincy).

 

The transit app's twitter account is followed by Cincy Bell Connector, Cincinnati Metro, and KC Streetcar, so I bet they're aware of the situation.

 

When I was a scheduler at Metro, we had a very close relationship with Transit App. I had to be in close contact when we redesigned the XTRA Service network and had to add 133 new bus routes to the system last year. I have no doubt that the crowdsourcing feature will arrive on the Transit app in Cincy as soon as they begin a larger rollout.

 

In the meantime, it looks like the realtime feed is still accurate on TRAVIC, which isn't very useful when you're waiting on a bus...but still fascinating to watch. http://tracker.geops.ch/?z=14&s=1&x=-9407999.7980&y=4738588.1507&l=transport

Not for Foreign and Indie movies.

 

The new theater at Oakley Station plays Indian movies but not Indie movies.  100+ Indian UC students uber over there from the Mont Michelle and Forum Apts every week.  Meanwhile, the Esquire, which is within walking distance of the Mont Michelle and Forum complexes, screens a half dozen indie (but not Indian) films every week. 

 

 

The esquire tends to play safer middlebrow indie films, which is good, but if you want crazy indie stuff, cult cinema or even decent cinema retrospectives/special events - they are a terrible theater IMO they overemphasize how conservative Cincinnati is.

 

Ever heard of the room for instance?  Its a huge midnight  movie phenomenon but not in Cincinnati :P

Ever heard of the room for instance?  Its a huge midnight  movie phenomenon but not in Cincinnati :P

 

Are you talking about The Room, or Room. Because the Esquire has shown both.

 

Room was shown in 2015 when it was released.

 

The Room has been shown at the Esquire in 2011 and multiple times in 2014.

You are tearing me apart Lisa!

Hahahaha.

 

This thread has been torn apart.  I was always shocked how few of my friends in Cincy knew about this a few years back, maybe I'm dated.

 

Btw speaking of film I took a glance at the schedule for Memorial Hall, lots of great cultural stuff programmed there - you guys even got the found footage festival.  Cincy is getting better at this sort of thing (I still have a hangover from my days in the city's nadir).

 

Anyways back to topic.

Here are some pictures of the area of Kansas City where there is a lot of redevelopment around their streetcar line:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=740760&page=20

 

Not hard to see why the streetcar is popular there since it appears that at least half of the buildings have been redeveloped already.  They look easier to renovate than Over-the-Rhine's buildings. 

 

The streetcar itself runs in both directions on Main St., which is wider than our streets by at least a lane width, enabling them to maintain a center turn lane. 

 

 

Anyone an insider for WCPO? They have an article about should Cincinnati have 250 miles of streetcars.

^ I don't have access but I'm guessing it's looking at Cincinnati's historic streetcar system, which had about that much track, and asking whether it would make sense to built our modern system back up to that level.

The Streetcar Facebook page posted yesterday afternoon that a 4th car was put into service because of heavy ridership. So they apparently have the ability to do that when needed, maybe I missed the discussion about that.

 

I think the record high temperature of 71F played a big role. Even though it was a holiday, I doubt that many people would have been out and about if it were 10 degrees. It'd be interesting to chart daily ridership against weather conditions, events, holidays, etc. and see just how big a role they all play.

The Streetcar Facebook page posted yesterday afternoon that a 4th car was put into service because of heavy ridership. So they apparently have the ability to do that when needed, maybe I missed the discussion about that.

 

I think the record high temperature of 71F played a big role. Even though it was a holiday, I doubt that many people would have been out and about if it were 10 degrees. It'd be interesting to chart daily ridership against weather conditions, events, holidays, etc. and see just how big a role they all play.

 

Sun and warmth seem to make a big difference

What is a cool city?

 

not to de-rail this, but neilworms is referring to the cities whose dotcom companies layout their services first to and/or are based in (in the past, uber, lyft, foursquare, yelp came much later to Ohio after the initial rollout, just to name a few) ; those cities have larger populations, and a higher populations who are very-tech saavy (and wealthy) and would tend to use the apps. DC, SF, NYC, SEA, BOS as well as Austin, POR, LA, DEN, ATL, CHI, HOU, and then would .

It's also not a coincidence that those cities tend to be the most robust in providing those types of data that some of these services (specifically transit-related ones) rely upon.

 

Back on subject:

I'd highly recommend reaching out to Transit App, they are receptive. One of my friends here in Cleveland reached out to them earlier this year when Cleveland's RTA first came out with half-baked version of Real-time bus locations  (IIRC, the buses report every few minutes and then they estimate based off that old data) and as a result, they added Cleveland to their app.