Streetcar open house draws crowd
In the Oklahoma City streetcar, Chatoya and Florentino Duarte see possibilities for a city that is easier to navigate and more convenient for everyone.
The couple were among several hundred residents attending a streetcar open house Friday.
The city rolled out two of its brand-new streetcars at the downtown maintenance garage and opened one for residents to walk through or take a seat.
“They’re beautiful,” said Chatoya Duarte. “I like how they’re built for everybody.
“There’s a spot for wheelchair accessible. You can stand if you don’t want to sit,” she said. “There is lots of room to move around.”
“They’re actually more than what I thought they would be,” said Florentino Duarte. “I thought they were going to be like a little trolley car. This is impressive.”
The Duartes — he is 34, she is 32 — live in northwest Oklahoma City. They came downtown for the open house with his sister-in-law and her young children.
Streetcar service begins in December.
Streetcars will run in two loops — one longer, the other shorter — reaching Midtown on the north edge of the central business district and the new convention center on the south.
Tracks will run into and out of the Bricktown entertainment district beneath the BNSF Railway viaduct.
Florentino Duarte said the couple most likely would be evening and weekend riders, for downtown attractions and events and restaurants.
The streetcar could be the decision-maker when considering an evening out in Bricktown, he said.
“We don’t frequent the Bricktown area as much anymore,” he said, “and mostly because of the traffic and the congestion, but now with this coming out it would be an incentive to come down.”
The Liberty model streetcars built by Brookville Equipment Corp. in Pennsylvania are 66 feet long. They seat 65 to 70, with room for up to 104 sitting and standing.
The Liberty’s “modern” design — in contrast to “vintage” trolleys in cities such as New Orleans and San Francisco — is quiet-running and enables boarding without a step up.
Oklahoma City’s streetcars will run through the heart of downtown on battery power, or “off-wire.” Overhead wires are being installed elsewhere on the route.
A base fare of $1 to ride has been proposed.
The city is buying seven streetcars, three themed in “Redbud” colors, two in “Clear Sky Blue” and two in “Bermuda Green.” Each vehicle costs nearly $5 million.
Transit officials estimated about 700 people attended the two-hour open house, lining up an hour before it began.
After touring the first of the Redbud streetcars, Chatoya and Florentino Duarte already were imagining the benefits of extending streetcar service beyond downtown.
“As the city grows,” Chatoya Duarte said, “traffic is going to become a bigger problem with people and cars on the road.
“So something like this, if it goes all over the city, it would alleviate the traffic congestion.
“That would be a big plus,” she said.