Streetcar contract approved with minimal Sunday service
All-day service on Oklahoma City’s streetcar will be limited to the main, or “D” line, and run only six days per week under terms of a operations agreement with a Texas firm.
The Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority (COTPA) board on Friday approved the six-year, $17.3 million contract with Herzog Transit Services of Irving, Texas.
While the contract had the full board’s support, trustee James Cooper voted “no” out of concern over the failure to include a regular Sunday schedule when service begins next year.
Sunday transit service is “vital” to people who work downtown, especially those in low-wage service jobs such as hotel housekeepers and restaurant servers, Cooper said.
“The world does not stop on Sunday,” he said. “There’s unity on that board. We all want Sunday service.”
Cooper, though, called the contract “a great first start” and said he looked forward to efforts over the next 18 months to find funding to run streetcars on Sundays.
“I think it lays a good foundation,” he said. “I just need it to go further.”
Streetcars will run on two lines:
• The 4.9-mile D Line will traverse the central business district, linking Midtown and Bricktown.
• Dubbed the B Line, the 2-mile Bricktown loop will link Bricktown and the convention center district.
Oklahoma City is buying seven streetcars, at close to $5 million apiece, from Brookville Equpment Corp. of Pennsylvania, for the $131 million system.
Service is to begin by
December 2018.
Plans are for the vast majority of service hours to the devoted to the D Line. Streetcars are to run from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday and 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
On the B Line, regular service will be 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Additional hours are allocated to meet irregular demand, such as when conventions are in town, and for special events, such as concerts and Sunday evening Thunder basketball games.
Negotiations began after Herzog was chosen last November from among four contenders for the contract.
Jason Ferbrache, director of Embark, Oklahoma City’s transit agency, said finalization of the contract marked “a milestone for us in a couple of ways.”
Ferbrache called the contract a “milestone for the city in terms of bringing a MAPS 3 project further and closer to completion and operation.”
“As the city’s public transit provider,” he added, “it marks a milestone for us in adding a new mode of transportation” in line with goals of Embark’s strategic business plan.
Herzog’s work begins this month, as the process of preparing to open the system gains momentum.
Herzog’s responsibilities will include maintenance, testing and development of safety procedures. The company will employ the streetcar operators and mechanics.
Herzog operates commuter rail lines, including the Trinity Railway Express in Dallas-Fort Worth. It also operates Kansas City’s streetcar, which recently marked its one-year anniversary.
Herzog will be paid $3.2 million for the first full year of operation, reaching $3.7 million in the sixth year of the contract.
Based on ridership estimates from around 2013 and taking the upper range of those estimates, the streetcar could have just under 500,000 riders per year.
Fares would be expected to offset 10 to 11 percent of the operating expenses once the system is established, Ferbrache has said. Fares have not been set.