Streetcars in Cincinnati
A streetcar at 5th & Walnut, in downtown Cincinnati, on the previous system.
A new system was constructed in 2013–16. |
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| Locale | Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. | ||||||||||
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Streetcars were the main form of public transportation in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century. The first electric streetcars began operation in 1889, and at its maximum, the streetcar system had 222 miles (357 km) of track and carried more than 100 million passengers per year. A very unusual feature of the system was that cars on some of its routes traveled via inclined railways to serve areas on hills near downtown. With the advent of inexpensive automobiles and improved roads, transit ridership declined in the 20th century and the streetcar system closed in 1951.
Construction of a new streetcar system, now known as the Cincinnati Bell Connector, began in 2012. Consisting initially of a single route, the new system opened on September 9, 2016.
Cincinnati's first settlers made their home on the large flat basin that now includes downtown, Over-the-Rhine, and the West End. By the 1850s, the city's population was too large for the basin alone, and people started moving to the city's surrounding hills.Horsecars were the first form of public transportation, with operation beginning on September 14, 1859. Although horsecars had been running in New Orleans since 1835, very few other cities introduced rail transit – in the form or horse- or mule-drawn cars – until the 1850s, and in 1859 Cincinnati was still one of the first few U.S. cities with such transit service. However, horse-drawn vehicles were inadequate because the animals would fatigue and the hills were impossible to climb in bad weather. Cities with hilly terrain such as Cincinnati and San Francisco began adopting cable cars, because they were faster and more reliable than horses.
The first cable car routes in Cincinnati were on Gilbert Avenue, Mount Auburn, and Vine Street. Cable cars require that the car be pulled by a constantly running cable hidden under the street. Electricity proved to be cheaper and more reliable than cable cars, which required that the cable be replaced periodically. Consequently, starting on August 17, 1889, the first streetcars were introduced, and the existing cable cars were converted to electric streetcars or abandoned. The lines grew until there were 222 miles (357 km) of streetcar tracks in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The track gauge was 5 ft 2 1⁄2 in (1,588 mm) (Pennsylvania trolley gauge). Some of the interurban lines serving Cincinnati also used this gauge, while others used standard gauge track.
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