Questions About Operations of Cincinnati's Streetcar Still Need to Be Answered

"Cost estimates for the two streetcar operating scenarios are in: One fits within the operating budget set by the city and the other does not, and there's a potential political fight brewing over which one will be selected," reports Chris Wetterich.

The two options, as described in documents obtained by the Cincinnati Business Courier:

• Management Option - "If the city decides that SORTA should employ most of the streetcar workers itself and have a third-party operator manage them, it will cost $4.7 million in the first year, according to documents obtained by the Business Courier. This 'management option' will cost $500,000 more than the top range of the city’s $3.8 million to $4.2 million operations budget."
• Turnkey Option - "If the city decides that SORTA should let the management company hire the streetcar staffers, the so-called 'turnkey option,' it will cost $4 million. The ATU is expected to unionize the private company’s employees if the city selects that option, but they will not receive state pension benefits."

The dueling proposals put Democratic representatives on the Cincinnati City Council in a bind, according to Wetterich, because the extra costs projected for the management option could lead to service cuts. It's a question of how much support they can offer unions and the pensions that come along with them, relative to the potential impacts of such a management scheme to the actual levels of service provided by the system.