Omaha, NE — Light Rail Study

Rail Transit Online, May 2003

A contract with URS Corp. to continue studying transportation options, including light rail, was approved on Apr. 24 by Omaha’s Metro Area Transit (MAT) board of directors.  Funding will come from a nearly $1-million federal grant approved by Congress in 1999 specifically to analyze a streetcar line from north Omaha through downtown to Rosenblatt Stadium serving many of the city’s activity centers.  The Federal Transit Administration agreed to release the money for a general transportation study as long as rail was included.  MAT Executive Director Gary Ruegg told the Omaha World Herald he’s not convinced that LRT would be cost-effective and warned that getting the capital funding is far from assured, although rail could be a part of MAT's long-range plan.  “What I think the study needs is a third party to look at the financial issues, the community issues, the engineering issues and the environmental issues,” Ruegg told the World Herald.  The initial estimate for the streetcar system was about $50 million, but Ruegg told the MAT board a planned downtown circulator using 10 “historic” refurbished buses from the 1960s will cost just $1.5 million and will provide much the same service.