Potential Rail Lines
There have been numerous official and unofficial renderings and plans for prospective rail lines created over the last few decades, often including both streetcar and light rail systems in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Instead of focusing our efforts on creating yet another comprehensive plan for a regional rail transit system, we set out to examine and analyze several of these existing plans, noting their commonalities and differences, especially with an eye towards understanding how rail transit would function in Northern Kentucky.
Still, we recognize that some aspects of these plans remains under-investigated, such as the possibility for streetcar transit in Northern Kentucky. We have therefore suggest multiple potential streetcar routes for Northern Kentucky, connecting to the existing Cincinnati street car and running into the river cities of Covington and Newport. Completing this loop is a manageable sized project and therefore more realistic in having a chance of actually being implemented in coming years. Advantages and disadvantages of each line is discussed in detail.
Each of the five regional rail transit plans analyzed, as well as our own suggested lines, can be accessed by clicking the pictures below.
Instead of focusing our efforts on creating yet another comprehensive plan for a regional rail transit system, we set out to examine and analyze several of these existing plans, noting their commonalities and differences, especially with an eye towards understanding how rail transit would function in Northern Kentucky.
Still, we recognize that some aspects of these plans remains under-investigated, such as the possibility for streetcar transit in Northern Kentucky. We have therefore suggest multiple potential streetcar routes for Northern Kentucky, connecting to the existing Cincinnati street car and running into the river cities of Covington and Newport. Completing this loop is a manageable sized project and therefore more realistic in having a chance of actually being implemented in coming years. Advantages and disadvantages of each line is discussed in detail.
Each of the five regional rail transit plans analyzed, as well as our own suggested lines, can be accessed by clicking the pictures below.
Having analyzed the five recent regional plans, a certain clear model emerges for how rain transit would likely function in Northern Kentucky.
The prospective system has four lines: three light rail lines and one street car line. Two of the light rail lines generally share the same right-of-way along Interstate 75, but fork to different termination points - one to the CVG Airport and the other to Florence. The third light rail line runs through Newport and terminates around Northern Kentucky University or Cold Springs. The streetcar line runs in a loop between Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport.
Again, many of the rail transit plans analyzed portray these four lines in Northern Kentucky with minimal variation. This is perhaps because this is what SORTA's 2002 MetroMoves plan had delineated for rail transit in Northern Kentucky; this official plan likely influenced later planning and thinking on the topic.
The prospective system has four lines: three light rail lines and one street car line. Two of the light rail lines generally share the same right-of-way along Interstate 75, but fork to different termination points - one to the CVG Airport and the other to Florence. The third light rail line runs through Newport and terminates around Northern Kentucky University or Cold Springs. The streetcar line runs in a loop between Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport.
Again, many of the rail transit plans analyzed portray these four lines in Northern Kentucky with minimal variation. This is perhaps because this is what SORTA's 2002 MetroMoves plan had delineated for rail transit in Northern Kentucky; this official plan likely influenced later planning and thinking on the topic.