City to SORTA: Speed up the streetcar or else

The Cincinnati streetcar continues to run behind schedule, not meeting a promise of no more than a 15-minute wait at any station.

And Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black isn't happy. He wrote a letter to the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, which hired a private company called Transdev to run daily operations, demanding the timing issue be resolved.

"If the headway problem is not resolved once streetcar operations normalize in the coming weeks, the City expects that SORTA will motivate Transdev to take any and all necessary steps to meet its contractual obligations," Black wrote. "We have every reason to hope that Transdev will cooperate with SORTA and the City to meet its obligations, but it is important to be clear about expectations."

The contract with the city requires the 15-minute "headways."

If the wait-time issue is not resolved, the city "will not hesitate to use its express authority under the Transdev contract to protect its interests," Black continued.

The comment suggests the city would take legal action to enforce the contract.

Dwight A. Ferrell, SORTA's CEO, responded in a letter of his own to Black, saying it's going to cost money.

"Many of the issues you reference are related to ridership far exceeding projections, the growing pains of a new system and assuring adequate capacity of the system," Ferrell wrote. "We are prepared to increase capacity by adding vehicles as requested by the City, but that requires additional resources."

Last week he told council SORTA would make changes as needed, but it was too soon to have enough data showing when cars were needed.

Black declined to comment, but wrote a memo to the mayor and council saying, "As we approach the first full month of Cincinnati Bell Connector service we are continuing to engage with SORTA to apply the information learned about the system, and the feedback received, with the goal of improving all aspects of streetcar operations."

Ridership on the streetcar between Sept. 12 – the first paid day of streetcar operations – and Sept. 25 show 70,292 rides, according to SORTA reports. And that's brought in $47,755, more than anticipated. That's nearly a quarter of the total amount ($196,875) needed by the end of the year. Ridership numbers for this past weekend were not available Monday.

This weekend marked the fourth weekend of operations. Citizens reported delays; streetcars were so full they passed by stops where people were waiting.

"It's a wonderful problem to have; it's too popular," said Derek Bauman, a streetcar supporter who lives in Over-the-Rhine. "The city and SORTA need to work collaboratively to solve this, not work against each other. Let's makes it easier for people to spend their money. This is about economic activity."

Transdev is running two streetcars on weekends, which is where the problem comes in.

Their contract calls for the 15-minute headways, but Transdev told the city it always planned to run two streetcars on weekends. Running more would cost more, and it's the city's responsibility to pay for that, it says.

Not so, city officials counter. Transdev – a private, for-profit company that runs streetcars all over the world – won the contract via bid, in which it said it could run the streetcar for $4.2 million a year. That was less than other bids, one of the reasons the company was chosen.

The streetcar opened for business Sept. 9, with free rides that weekend. The following two weekends – featuring Oktoberfest Zinzinnati and then a home Bengals game – the city intervened to help. For Oktoberfest, four streetcars ran; for the Bengals game, three ran.

But the issue was far from resolved. So far ridership and revenue have exceeded expectations.

Councilman David Mann has suggested SORTA make decisions about how many streetcars run at any one time – even if it's more than planned – then reconcile the cost with the city quarterly. Under the plan, if ridership does not cover costs, the city would be liable. That idea has not yet come to a vote.