Background The Omaha-Council Bluffs streetcar era began operations in 1868. By 1890, the metropolitan area had of tracks— more than any city except Boston. The
Omaha Traction Company was the dominant private streetcar provider of the time; it was engulfed in repeated labor disputes. By 1955, the city closed its streetcar system in favor of buses.
Planning and development In 2009, the City of Omaha and Heritage Services developed a
Downtown Omaha Masterplan to improve the Omaha downtown area by 2030. The transportation element of the
Omaha Master Plan was completed in 2012, and included a
bus rapid transit (BRT) and other non-car transit as part of the transportation blueprints. In 2013 as part of a central Omaha transit analysis, SB Friedman Development Advisors forecast central Omaha development impacts from improved transit. The Friedman analysis compared streetcar projects from Portland, Seattle, and Tampa to BRT alternatives from Cleveland and Kansas City, estimating the streetcar increases development by $1billion and the BRT alternative by $262million. The central Omaha transit alternatives analysis was completed in 2014, narrowing down the alternatives to a BRT or streetcar system along Farnam and Harney or a Farnam Contraflow route. During her re-election campaign in April 2017,
Mayor Jean Stothert said voters should decide the streetcar's future, hoping to put it on the November 2018 ballot, "I've always wanted the people to be the final decision," the mayor said. "That's nothing different." In the 2019 to 2020 election cycle Stothert received: $10,000 from
HDR Inc., an engineering firm advocating for streetcars nationwide, and $5,000 from
Kutak Rock LLP, a legal firm with specialists in
Tax Increment Financing (TIF).
Representative Don Bacon was unsuccessful in obtaining an $8 million
earmark for the project in 2021. In 2022, a revised plan was announced by Mayor
Jean Stothert and the
Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce's Urban Core Committee. State Senator
Justin Wayne, champion of TIF legislation for 'extremely blighted' areas of the state, questioned the use of TIF for the streetcar saying “For them to extremely blight that area is a slap in the face to North and South Omaha," citing multimillion-dollar investment and renovation projects going on in the urban core of the state's biggest city, “In no way is downtown Omaha extremely blighted.” At the December6, 2022, Omaha City Council meeting Thomas Rubin, CPA, CMA, CMC, CIA, CGFM, CFM, a transit industry senior executive, consultant, and auditor with four decades experience in transportation and an Omaha native provided a presentation. Rubin states the
Omaha Rapid Bus Transit (ORBT) excels over the proposed streetcar line on almost all standard transportation measures: going over three times as far west to serve more potential riders and destinations, faster operating speed, and more trips/day– and at a far lower cost that does not require hundreds of millions of dollars of additional taxpayer capital. Rubin also highlights, per
HDR analysis, the Omaha streetcar achieved most of the development potential already since ORBT began operations two years ago with two-thirds of the growth development ability of the proposed streetcar in the development corridor under study. On December13, 2022, the
Omaha City Council approved $440million in bonds to fund the streetcar, $360million
TIF bonds and $80million from lease purchase bonds. The City of Omaha published a plan to pay back the $600 million needed, $440 million principle plus $160 million in interest, by: first, diverting $421 million from $2.2 billion in new TIF subsidized projects in the streetcar district; second, diverting $71 million from existing development in the streetcar district; and third, diverting $115 million from existing TIF subsidized projects by extending those TIFs 5 years for a total of $607 million in diverted property taxes. Subsequently, investor
Warren Buffett, an Omaha resident and owner of
Berkshire Hathaway, published a
letter to the editor in the
Omaha World-Herald to oppose the street project. He cited its cost and inflexibility compared to a bus system. The streetcar would run on a route from Cass to Farnam on South 10th Street, Farnam west to 42nd Street, and back to 10th Street on Harney. The streetcar was originally expected to be operational in 2026, and free for all riders. On June12, 2023 streetcar officials stated plans to hire an outside company to run the streetcar, as Omaha has no one capable, and moved the beginning of operations to spring 2027. While future expansions north, south, and west in Omaha and
Council Bluffs, Iowa, have been proposed, Omaha city planning stated an alternatives analysis has yet to be completed on any proposal and would take a total of 8 to 10 years once started. Utility relocation work along the route began in September 2023. At a June 18, 2024 news conference Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert and Omaha Streetcar Authority Chairman and developer Jay Noddle updated streetcar corridor costs to $459 million, with $39 million of the increase to be paid by city sewer fees, and a potential cost-sharing agreement with Nebraska Department of Transportation to cover about $21.5 million in bridge replacement costs. Nebraska State Auditor
Mike Foley issued a 26-page advisory letter to the
Nebraska Unicameral on the increased use of TIF in Nebraska and highlighted Omaha's streetcar project summarizing “My purpose for discussing the ‘Streetcar Project’ in the letter is not to criticize or pass judgement on this half-billion dollar undertaking, which uses TIF on over 1,100 parcels of prime real estate,” Foley stated. “It is merely to shed light on the potential impact of the financing techniques being employed to fund it. In the final analysis, construction of the ‘Streetcar Project’ will be anything but free.” In that same advisory, Foley noted that during the time property taxes are diverted to pay off costs of a redevelopment project, those property taxes are not available for public education and other local services. City of Omaha announced a new projected operational date of 2028. 2025 Omaha mayoral candidate Mike McDonnell proposed a referendum allowing residents to decide whether to continue the streetcar project, even though opponents, including Douglas County Treasure
John Ewing, Candidate Jasmine Harris, and Mayor Jean Stothert, argue that it is too late to halt the project. In September 2025, Omaha's Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD) sought a payment plan to protect ratepayers and the utility district from shouldering a significant increase in streetcar-related construction costs. Omaha has called for a way to monitor MUD’s streetcar expenses, stating the city was blindsided by the cost of the utility district’s first phases of work.. As part of the 2026 budget and capital improvement program, the City of Omaha approved an additional $61 million in non-bond funding for the streetcar project for the first time, with $35 million from the Sewer Revenue Improvement fund. City of Omaha Public Works Director Robert Stubbe confirmed non-bond funding for the streetcar would be used during Omaha Street Car Authority's 2026 budget deliberation, Resolution 2025-031. On February 24, 2026, the Omaha City Council held a public hearing on an additional $70 million in lease-purchase bonds for the streetcar project. During the meeting, Deputy Chief of Staff Economic Development Steve Jensen stated that the administration did not expect to issue more than approximately $490 million in streetcar-related bonds in total, explaining the additional authorization was intended in part to allow the city to shift a portion of the planned financing from 20 year TIF revenue bonds to 40-year lease-purchase bonds. The following table summarizes streetcar related bond ordinances adopted since 2022: City Councilman
Brinker Harding stated during the public hearing that he holds no personal equity stake in land within the streetcar district. Harding is also a senior vice president at
Colliers International in Omaha, a commercial real estate firm that specializes in investment sales and landlord representation in the local market. ==Rolling stock==