I was driving up Gilbert Avenue from downtown recently, noticing the new median improvements being installed. Casually examining the work, I saw what appeared to be railroad tracks running through what would have been the middle of the road.
Turns out the backhoe digging up the road so construction workers could fill up the new medians with dirt so, presumably, some vegetation would grow in it, had dug up the old Cincinnati Urban Neighborhood Transit lines that ran up to Walnut Hills.
That sight really got me imagining how neat it would have been had the streetcar never ceased operation. We’d be like the San Francisco of the Midwest (couple that with our rainless weather this summer, and we’re already pretty close). It also sort of tugs at the possibility a new Cincinnati Urban Neighborhood Transit line from downtown up to to Findlay Market and maybe eventually up to Clifton would look like.
4 replies on “Bringing back the Cincinnati Urban Neighborhood Transit”
Joe, last week making my way up Gilbert while leaving a message. I found myself speechless for a few seconds, my mind imagined the former glory days when these tracks were alive. I had to apologize, “Wow, I just saw the old tracks in the exposed street.” I couldn’t care what the person thought… It was so great to see.
Looking at the votes from the failed MetroMoves levy in 2002, the most viable route for our first light rail line would be Downtown through Brodway Commons up Gilbert to (near) Xavier and along the north side of Dana through Evanston, Rookwood, Hyde Park Plaza and Oakley to, say, Erie Avenue. It’s a single jurisdiction. If you add up the votes of the wards along this alignment plus Uptown which could be served by a streetcar on MLK to Heights, Ludlow or both, they voted 51-49% for better transit, including light rail and streetcars, in 2002.
Food for thought.
Cincinnati Urban Neighborhood Transit? Such an unfortunate acronym.
Congratulations, Joe. I was wondering who was going to figure that one out. Let me know where I can send the prize…