Photograph courtesy City of Cincinnati
Find your way to a riverfront park this summer and watch the Ohio River flow by. Pack a picnic for Washington Park and marvel at Over-the- Rhine’s historic architecture. Gawk at the tasty food and produce inside Findlay Market. Catch live music on a warm evening on Fountain Square.
The Connector, Cincinnati’s streetcar, glides around all of these wallet-friendly opportunities, creating the chance to choose your own adventure along the 3.6-mile loop from The Banks past arts venues and restaurants in the Central Business District to the northern reaches of Over-the-Rhine. “It’s something that allows people to quickly move around the city, and since it’s fully accessible and free it offers the opportunity to do that equitably,” says Lori Burchett, deputy director of Cincinnati streetcar services since 2022. “The Connector also reduces congestion, which is a major benefit for everyone, even people driving in the city.”
The Connector began operations in 2016 with a $1 single-ride fare or $2 all-day fare. It became free in November 2020, a month after the city resumed service following a temporary pandemic shutdown. At the time, many transit services were waiving fees, Burchett says, deciding that the fare box recovery wasn’t substantial enough to warrant its collection; in Cincinnati, for example, fares represented less than 3 percent of the streetcar’s total operating costs. Ridership here soared from 530,016 rides in 2019 (the last year with a fare) to nearly 1.2 million in 2024.
Making the service free certainly was the greatest catalyst for increased ridership, says Burchett, but today there are other dynamics at play to keep the numbers rising. “People are getting used to riding it after their first trip and deciding to ride it again,” she says. “They’re finding it really adds to how they enjoy the community.”
The streetcar has become more efficient over the years, says Brad Thomas, a local attorney and longtime streetcar advocate, which bodes well for ridership. “On the old ticket machines, I think you had to press 13 buttons to buy a ticket with a credit card. It was just absurd,” he says. “Making it free really has lowered the barriers to entry. You just see the streetcar and you get on. No problem.”
Photograph courtesy City of Cincinnati
Last year, city officials addressed the system’s biggest cause for delay by removing a bus stop near Government Square that used to cause bus backups in the streetcar lane. Thomas is pushing for other improvements to optimize the route, such as a transit-only lane on Walnut Street for buses and the streetcar and adjustments to some traffic signals along the route so streetcars could avoid more red lights.
“Oh, and Sundays,” he says. “Right now the hours end at 9:30 p.m. We really should make that the same as every other day [11:30]. If you’re going to a concert or a Bengals Sunday night game, you need to be able to know that if you’re taking it down there you can ride it back.”
Improvements will be made in coming years with the assistance of two federal grants awarded to the city, says Burchett. The first grant will pay to study the current system’s needs, and the second will pay for physical infrastructure improvements; one upgrade will be installation of real-time arrival signs at each station. Stations currently display the daily schedule and inform riders that a streetcar should arrive every 12 to 15 minutes. While riders can access a free mobile app to track the streetcar, it can be confusing, particularly for out-of-town visitors, Burchett says.
While some cities with modern streetcars have secured federal funding to help extend their lines—including Kansas City, which opens a 3.5-mile downtown extension in a few months and purchased eight more streetcars—there is no funding allotted for expansion in Cincinnati, Burchett says. “For now,” she says, “we’re really focusing on maintaining our system and improving our customer experience.”
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