Streetcar fits into wider transit goals

Mayor David Holt says inaugurating the Oklahoma City Streetcar is “a big item checked off the list” of initiatives intended to improve metro-area transit.

Enhancing existing bus service to link residents to neighborhoods, jobs, services, shopping and entertainment is an immediate goal for the streetcar service that begins Friday.

Longer term, the streetcar will work in tandem with express buses, Amtrak and commuter rail to create a regional system centered on downtown’s Art Decoera Santa Fe Station transit hub.

With 4.9 miles of track running through downtown, from Midtown to Bricktown, the streetcar already has the eye of developers and is a key asset to convention planners.

The system will have been up and running about 18 months when the new convention center opens.

Holt said the streetcar is a “major assist to economic development and tourism, but it’s also a key part of a comprehensive transit system.”

For those future commuters pulling in at Santa Fe Station, the streetcar is one answer to the question of how they will navigate downtown once they arrive.

“That’s why the streetcar was included in our community’s transit plan way back in 2006 and that’s essentially the plan we’re still executing,” Holt said.

The Oklahoma City Council voted this fall to join Edmond, Del City, Midwest City, Moore and Norman in formation of the Regional Transportation Authority of Central Oklahoma.

The streetcar will introduce a 21st century public to an option absent from Oklahoma City for more than 50 years, said Marion Hutchison, chair of the nonprofit advocacy group OnTrac.

Hutchison served on the task force that finalized the RTA’s governance structure and district boundaries for presentation to the member cities.

He said seeing thestreetcar in action would build public support for regional transit, which eventually will require voters’ support of taxes to finance construction and operations.