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Cincinnati Streetcar / The Connector News

thomasbw
in Mass Transit

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I think passengers were let off the streetcar after about fifteen minutes.

 

It sounds like from the tabloid write-up that Portune was rear ended and not at fault.  Not sure if that's accurate or not, but initially it doesn't sounds like he hit the streetcar.

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." - Warren Buffett 

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  • thomasbw
    thomasbw

    January is normally the lowest ridership month for the Cincinnati Streetcar.    In January 2023, the streetcar had higher ridership than any month in 2017, 2018, 2020 or 2021. It also had hi

  • taestell
    taestell

    As of today, the Connector has carried 1 million riders in 2023. This is the first time that the system has crossed this threshold in a calendar year.   Back when the streetcar was being deb

  • taestell
    taestell

    30 minutes ago I got off the most jam-packed streetcar that I had been on since opening weekend.     It's absurd that none of the elected officials in this city are using this rec

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There are people who've ridden the streetcar that don't even realize it's on rails (they think the rails are for something else, are abandoned, or don't even know what they are).  I witnessed this first-hand.  So don't underestimate the capability for people to be completely blind to what's in front of them, or under their feet. 

 

Yeah I have seen people 2-3 times who have absolutely no idea what they are looking at.  The fact that the streetcar's steel wheels are hidden from view might explain some of it. 

 

Also, it illustrates just how invisible the overhead wire is. 

 

Yep. Opponents on both the far left and far right called it a "coal train" during the debates.

 

 

"That's right Flash, Daddy's gonna stick it to them Duke Boys! He he he!"

 

$10 if you can tell me what the P stands for without utilizing the Google machine.

 

My guess was Primrose but I was incorrect.

Last weekend I forgot to pay. I bought tickets on the app for myself, my wife, and her brother and cousin who were in from out of town. I got them before we went out as we knew we were going to use the streetcar to go to Fountain Square. We got on the train mid-conversation and I completely forgot to open my phone and click the second button that actually starts the one day pass. I wonder how often that happens. There was a cop on the car, but it was a Friday night so I think he was just keeping the pace, not checking tickets. I noticed when I got home and then used the tickets out of respect because I didn't want to feel like a thief.

Last weekend I forgot to pay. I bought tickets on the app for myself, my wife, and her brother and cousin who were in from out of town. I got them before we went out as we knew we were going to use the streetcar to go to Fountain Square. We got on the train mid-conversation and I completely forgot to open my phone and click the second button that actually starts the one day pass. I wonder how often that happens. There was a cop on the car, but it was a Friday night so I think he was just keeping the pace, not checking tickets. I noticed when I got home and then used the tickets out of respect because I didn't want to feel like a thief.

 

That's happened to me on a few occasions as well and I did the same thing.  It's quite easy when you're with family, friends or little kids to just forget.  I once had a cop check and I realized when I opened the app I forgot to activate the tickets.  The officer was very understanding, but that might be because he sees me on the thing so often and I usually have activated tickets.

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." - Warren Buffett 

Last weekend I forgot to pay. I bought tickets on the app for myself, my wife, and her brother and cousin who were in from out of town. I got them before we went out as we knew we were going to use the streetcar to go to Fountain Square. We got on the train mid-conversation and I completely forgot to open my phone and click the second button that actually starts the one day pass. I wonder how often that happens. There was a cop on the car, but it was a Friday night so I think he was just keeping the pace, not checking tickets. I noticed when I got home and then used the tickets out of respect because I didn't want to feel like a thief.

 

I know people who take advantage of this aspect of the app and only 'activate' the tickets IF there is a cop on board. When I was with him I told him to just activate it, since it was only $3 for all of us and it helps the streetcar's numbers, but I wonder how many other app savvy people are taking advantage of that on purpose.

So they are basically going to leave the bus stop where it is but not use it, and move bus routes to other stops. Which is fine with our current level of bus service. But if we pass a transit tax this year and increase service, we will probably need to revisit this issue again and move the stop to another location at that time.

So they are basically going to leave the bus stop where it is but not use it, and move bus routes to other stops. Which is fine with our current level of bus service. But if we pass a transit tax this year and increase service, we will probably need to revisit this issue again and move the stop to another location at that time.

Seems like the right order of operations.

  • 3 weeks later...

^ Mold is essentially harmless but people were whipped into a frenzy about it 15 years back because of a few reports on people getting sick. for over 95% of people it is harmless. The only reason why this died down was insurance companies refused to insure against it anymore. Funny how the hysteria goes away quickly when people have to pay for it themselves.

Every house in Florida is a "mold house"

^If you are afraid of mold, don't go outside.

PX should retract & apologize & feel embarrassed.

PX should retract & apologize & feel embarrassed.

 

No, he'll be back with another "scoop" shortly. 

 

Frankly, my high school newspaper would never have published something like that. 

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July ridership-

 

Kansas City 261,542 (8,436 per day)

Cincinnati- 58,428 (1,884 per day)

 

 

 

The comments are pretty good on this one, everyone comes to Cincy's defense except save for maybe one person. That will probably make Jason Williams double down again

He's a regular guest on WVXU's Cincinnati Edition.  I don't think it would be that hard to organize and effort to request WVXU to stop inviting him there as a guest.  He's simply not a mature journalist. 

Someone finally picked up Barry Horstman's torch.

He's the second coming of Peter Bronson. Or is that too harsh?

He's the second coming of Peter Bronson. Or is that too harsh?

 

I thought Peter Bronson was an act until I saw him out in public one day making snide comments. 

Jason Williams AGAIN trolls the streetcar:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/columnists/politics-extra/2018/08/20/serena-williams-cincinnati-hear-you-yes-we-great-city/1040662002/

 

Politics Extra hit a regionwide nerve last week, when I thanked tennis superstar Serena Williams for her kind words about Cincinnati being a "great city" amid a tough year of bad news. I wasn't seeing many positives, and asked you to share the good news happening this year.

 

And you definitely responded.

 

Hundreds of emails and social media comments have flooded in, and they're still coming. They're all appreciated.

 

Many people got it, and have shared positive goings-on in the community. Two readers even invited me to lunch. Others have chosen to slam me personally and not contribute to the discussion, mostly the usual critics who can't stand that I write the truth about the streetcar.

There appears to be just one video of Jason Williams on youtube...it should be no surprise that he was complaining at length about the streetcar in 2015, before the thing was running:

I personally have reached the point in the past few months to where I don't even bother going to Cincy.com on a the daily like I have for years.    And Hell with freeze over before I click on a Jason Williams article.  It's just a waste of time and energy.

Williams: "mostly the usual critics who can't stand that I write the truth about the streetcar."

 

Suggesting that the entire streetcar system be permanently shuttered because a speck of mold was found on board is not "writing the truth about the streetcar." Is it blatant pandering to 700 WLW listeners. To even make such a suggestion reveals your ignorance about the fact that we received federal funding to build the streetcar and if we were to shut it down before 2046, we would have to pay the federal funding back. Why does is always seem like the people screaming about the streetcar the loudest haven't even taken Streetcar 101 to learn the basic facts about the project?

You can see how he was primed to hate the streetcar in the 2015 video, which during streetcar construction.  In the video they briefly discuss the collapse of the Hopple St. overpass, which killed one person.  Why didn't Williams call for the permanent shut-down of I-75?

Just heard someone (I'm in Butler County) say they just saw the streetcar for the first time yesterday.  Another guy chimed in "Don't you love those Stealers Colors they went with?".  The first guy, who said he just saw the streetcar (presumably Aug 21, 2018), laughed with him. 

 

So we have one guy who has obviously never seen the streetcar in real life and another who for unknown reasons just lied and said he saw it yesterday.  Both are completely unaware that the streetcars were wrapped by Cincinnati Bell 24 months ago. 

Just heard someone (I'm in Butler County) say they just saw the streetcar for the first time yesterday.  Another guy chimed in "Don't you love those Stealers Colors they went with?".  The first guy, who said he just saw the streetcar (presumably Aug 21, 2018), laughed with him. 

 

So we have one guy who has obviously never seen the streetcar in real life and another who for unknown reasons just lied and said he saw it yesterday.  Both are completely unaware that the streetcars were wrapped by Cincinnati Bell 24 months ago.

 

I assume the guy who saw it yesterday had no idea what the other guy was talking about but just laughed because he felt like he was supposed to. That happens a lot.

I was with some older family members last week and they were saying stuff about the mold on the streetcar and "other problems"... These are mostly older people who still get their news from the Cincinnati Enquirer (actual paper version) and TV news. It' amazing how much sway the Enquirer still has with these people.

Lol of course not.

The level of ignorance never ceases to amaze me.  I’ve posted this before, but I’ll say it again.  I was in a microbrewery in Dayton OH  in 2016 I think it was.  I showed somebody my Facebook and she saw I had liked the Cincinnati streetcar. She said “oh that is gone, it lost so much money they cancelled that.”  I said “no I was just there and saw guys working on the tracks and wire.”  She wouldn’t believe me. She didn’t even understand what tracks and wire had to do with the conversation.  Saw her a few months later in another microbrewery and she was wearing a t shirt with a picture of Hillary and a slogan “lock her up”.  Let’s never forget that 40% of the US and probably a higher proportion in our area live in an alternative reality where they do not experience reality through empirical observation, they only experience reality through filtered social media. So if you want to believe we have moldy streetcars in Steelers yellow and black...yes there’s a reality cocoon you can hide in.

And Bill Cunningham is still blabbering on about how Cincinnati needs to "put those homeless camps onto the empty streetcars and kill two birds with one stone!" These people truly live in an alternate reality.

Trav[/member]. Yea...still following your Instagram keep those fantastic pics coming!  As for the streetcar, I think we’re slowly winning this thing: just a few short years ago the big boogie man was “criminals, felons, sex offenders will use the streetcar to commit crimes or flee from crime scenes”.  Now we’ve graduated to “mold spores riding the streetcar”.  We’ll finally win this thing when WLW and Enquirer scream “ shopper from Findlay Market found riding streetcar with contaminated kale in bag.”  ? just kidding! Lol!

^Did The Enquirer ever figure out who called in the bomb threats on opening weekend? 

Trav[/member]. Yea...still following your Instagram keep those fantastic pics coming!  As for the streetcar, I think we’re slowly winning this thing: just a few short years ago the big boogie man was “criminals, felons, sex offenders will use the streetcar to commit crimes or flee from crime scenes”.  Now we’ve graduated to “mold spores riding the streetcar”.  We’ll finally win this thing when WLW and Enquirer scream “ shopper from Findlay Market found riding streetcar with contaminated kale in bag.”  ? just kidding! Lol!

 

I always thought it was funny how streetcar haters pivoted from "only criminals and homeless people will ride the streetcar" to "only hipster/yuppie snobs will ride the streetcar" with no sense of irony whatsoever.

Rode the streetcar last Saturday for the first time in awhile, was quick and easy. Pretty good crowds for Saturday morning with relatively nothing going on of note. I still think though, they can really make it move much more efficient as all have said here before by signal timing. You would think it could cut the 15 mins headtimes to 8 mins pretty easy if there were parts which were transit only lanes and red light timing.

 

Think how much more people would ride during business days if the headtimes were 8 mins? I wonder what the difference in cost would be if the streetcars did that many loops more per day? Maybe it would even cost less because it isn't stopping and going but I kind of doubt that becasue it is electric?

Think how much more people would ride during business days if the headtimes were 8 mins? I wonder what the difference in cost would be if the streetcars did that many loops more per day? Maybe it would even cost less because it isn't stopping and going but I kind of doubt that becasue it is electric?

 

Yeah I watched one on Sunday at 4:30pm on Main St.  Downtown was completely dead.  There was no reason why it should have to wait at seemingly every red light when there was zero cross traffic or just a single car. 

Was planning to take a half hour lunch the other day. Tracked the Streetcar via Metro's bus tracker webpage (since you still can't reliably do it on an app) and went to the nearest station at the appropriate time.

 

Waited for them to change drivers a block before the station.

 

Got on at Findlay Market.

 

Departed at Washington Park.

 

Walked to pick up a food order and then went to 12/Main where the reader said "12 minutes."

 

Took about 18 minutes before the train actually showed up.

 

Got delayed on the way back due to the movie filming in OTR.

 

All in all, took way too long.

This movie shoot is really messing traffic downtown in general. A couple of weeks ago Metro posted that buses may be delayed by up to an hour because streets were closed for the movie shoot during rush hour. It's funny, rail opponents often say that buses are better than streetcars because they can go around accidents or take a different route when a street is closed. But it turns out it's not actually that simple.

OK, what’s the deal with all this talk about Cincinnati Bell pulling out, and how would that impact the system?

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