Some facts about the benefits of investing in the Cincinnati Streetcar:

  • The Streetcar will create 1,800 construction jobs starting this year and 9,000 permanent jobs over the life of the project—putting Cincinnatians back to work.
  • Building the Cincinnati Streetcar will result in more than 12,000 new residential units in the City.  These new residents will expand our tax base without increasing our tax rate, benefiting all of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods.
  • The Streetcar fills a transportation need. Almost half (48.2%) of the households along the streetcar line don’t own an automobile. The streetcar will connect these Cincinnatians with employment, medical services, groceries, and the City’s main transportation hub at Government Square.
  • The Cincinnati Streetcar will initially cover a 4.9 mile route connecting Downtown, the Riverfront and the Clifton Area around the University of Cincinnati. Future extensions are planned to other neighborhoods and Northern Kentucky.
  • The system will use seven, modern American-made trains; each streetcar can carry 170 passengers.  The streetcar will run 18 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • New economic development and the addition of this transportation asset will increase property values along the route, resulting $80 million of new revenue for Cincinnati Public Schools.
  • The benefit to cost ratio for the Cincinnati Streetcar is 2.7 to 1. For every dollar the City invests in the project it will receive almost three dollars benefits in the form of new tax revenues, reduced congestion, and improved air quality.
  • 54% of the jobs in the entire City of Cincinnati are Downtown and Uptown—the neighborhoods served by the streetcar. These neighborhoods contain 62,163 residents, almost 20% of the City’s population, and attractions that bring 12 million+ visitors to the City each year. The Casino at Broadway Commons is projected to attract another 6 million visitors.
  • The Streetcar represents an investment of $128 million into our city, predominately from State and Federal sources that can’t be used for any other purpose. None of the funding sources being used to build the streetcar could pay for fire or police salaries and most of these funds will be forfeited to another city if the streetcar isn’t built.
  • The Streetcar’s operations will be funded by a combination of sources including fares, sponsorships, advertising and a portion of the new casino revenues. No existing general fund dollars will be used to operate the streetcar.
  • The City will receive additional planning funds for future streetcar extensions and supportive zoning from the State of Ohio ($ 1.8 million) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development ($2.4 million).
  • Electric streetcars will result in almost 30,00 fewer tons of CO2 emissions per year, the equivalent of taking over 5,000 cars off the road each year.

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