Unfortunately, have never set foot in Cincinnati, Ohio. Have always been fascinated about its history, though. It was an early "gateway city to the west" for American expansion, from the east coast. It had (has) a wealth of Bavarian Catholics, which contributed to alot of its intellectual artsy aura. It was an early & important major-city for America. My first exposure to your city: 1972 Reds & WKRP (tv show).
You know what else Cincy has, A $50 million transit center under Second street that runs the entire length of Second street and can also support light rail that is fully complete but remains entirely unused. I guess Cincy has a history of just building and then abandoning public transit infrastructure
I live in dayton, but have frequented the greater metro cinci area, and would have loved to see this subway materialize...then there was Ted Strickland's 3-C proposal, to have a high speed rail connecting Cinci, COLs, and Cleveland, and would pass through Dayton and Springfield as well...sadly, Kasich ditched the plan
Agreed. The idea that Strickland had for the underground high speed rail system to connect the three C's was phenomenal, but not feasible with existing technology, but we might be able to accomplish it in the future. If we ever do, Ohio will become America's biggest tourist attraction. Being able to visit three large cities, each with their own unique culture, in a single night out is something that everyone in the world would be interested in. Ohio is the only state in America where such a thing could be accomplished. But technology has to advance before that can happen.
They should open it up to street fare sellers and performance artists. All year round even in the snow -- have space heaters down there. Let local artists paint the walls with graffiti. It will be a great tourist attraction and the city can charge rent for spaces. Pay for the street cars above.
Obviously Rochester isn't the only city with a shuttered subway line. Cincinnati also has a shuttered subway. Seeing all the increased traffic congestion on both I-71 and I-75, probably it is time for Cincinnati business and civic leaders to revisit the subway system and seriously consider reopening it and retrofitting it for 21st century transportation needs. There are too many cars clogging up downtown Cincinnati. A similar situation also exists up in Rochester, NY the other city with an abandoned subway line.
there are so many things related to cincinnati that do not make sense, or seem unbelievable. it's easy to think how if only a few things could have happened differently, or fell into place along the way, cincinnati would be totally different, and a much better place to be in. even in it's current state, a few modifications, or adjustments to existing conditions would seem like an idea to revisit. instead, it is forgotten or totally scraped for a new idea, to start from scratch on, not knowing if it will work, or last over time. and, here we go, repeat.
As a lifelong Cincinnatian I couldn't agree more. At the turn of the 20th century, we were destined for greatness, and were experiencing widespread growth on a scale comparable to that of Chicago. Dayton was also thriving and growing, and the two cities were on their way to collide with one another; creating a single, sprawling metropolis that would've matched the population of NYC. Unfortunately, we elected some downright awful politicians, and our growth came to a screeching halt. It would've been interesting to see how we would've ended up had it not been for our incompetent local government. That being said, I still love my hometown, and we have most of the things that NYC and Chicago have; just not nearly as much of it.
One reason the project failed was that the Cincinnati city streetcars had a wider track gauge than the numerous interurban lines feeding into Cincinnati, which were standard gauge. This kept the Interurbans off Cincinnati streets, and out of downtown, which helped kill them off. By the time the tunnels were finished, there were no interurban lines left to feed into them.
Unfortunately the City built a huge waterline through these tunnels making it extremely difficult to even consider re using them for a train system BUT what if we were to tear out the roads and fill those subways with water re creating the legendary Canal system that once made its way through our fine city? Imagine the draw a beautiful canal would bring to our tourism industry and also the access small delivery ships would have to bring products and wares from the Ohio. Venice,Chi...Cincinnati!
This sounds SO MUCH like Pittsburgh. Ironically, We HAVE a subway...But it does NOT serve the areas that NEED it. (and it took 80 years to build...) 🤦♂️
Sad... same happened here in Göteborg, Sweden. Lots of tramways were removed, because people didn't use it... 40 years later (or even more) the city is screaming for the tramway... people are just stupid and thinks just as far as their nose go...
Toledo (Cincinnati) home of the Toledo Navada male cat in Ultimate Supreme Football, and Toledo Red Jax they're Russian lift jacks in MLBaseball, While Chince Proper and Chince U has a great presence, there on Saturdays. Did you see what I did...
"New York City has, by far, the highest rate of public transportation use of any American city, with 54.2% of workers commuting to work by this means in 2006" - The majority of New Yorkers don't commute by car so traffic isn't a issue, (for most). And the city itself would not function at all without the subway. That said, the current urban neighborhoods of Cincinnati are not dense enough to support a subway, but they are growing, quite rapidly at the moment. The price of gasoline goes one way..
It's really a cool idea but think of how much more time and money need to be dumped into this project before it can be completed let alone the money it would need for maintenance. All that being said it's a better deal to just build a road, it costs way less and there are no needed specialty licences for operation.
City council is planning to lay off Cops and Fire Fighters. In the same breathe they talk about how they want to spend 14 mil on a trolly system? If thats ur idea of a healthy sign of growth, I'm glad I live in the County.
While I find the Cincinnati Subway a great piece of "Uncompleted America", I wouldn't exactly call an few only partially built tunnel segments that were never even close to operational "A Subway System".
They completed nearly half of the 16 miles of tunnel and three stations that I know of.. I think there's only the stations and a couple miles of tunnel left today though they definitely had built a non-trivial amount of the project when they cancelled it.
This is only one of the city's serious blunders! One of many! This year it's a streetcar system to circle a few downtown city blocks at a huge huge huge cost! They haven't even broke ground and the Mayor has already bought the streetcars and paid for them, nearly bankrupting the city. Hey! I'll bet when he leaves office he will walk into a damn well paid job with the streetcar maker.
A subway to save Cincinnati? From traffic jams? From urban flight and loss of (doubtlessly ancient, now outmoted) businesses? Come on. Ask NYC - it's subways after all have eliminated traffic issues entirely. Let's just say, "I doubt it."
No rapid mass transit around here yet but we do get a slow assed street car system that won't serve 5% of the city's population... This town's politics has a tradition of impotence.
glad to see cincinnati cynicism is still in full swing. 1. Downtown is opening businesses and bars all over with plans to draw tourism. 2. I think todays technology can handle mosquitos 3. I'm simply entertaining an Idea to help the city. Your negative outlooks on this city's potential are pretty disappointing.
@CincinnatiKid10100 Tell me about it. Everyone thinks a streetcar is good and is a healthy sign of growth, but a few loud mouth negative nancy's ruin everything.
At the turn of the 20th century, Cincinnati was growing as fast as NYC and Chicago. Traffic was becoming a nightmare. Utilizing the long-abandoned Miami and Erie canals made sense for emerging rapid transit.
We are Cincinnati, we will keep putting it off.
There's some sections in Norwood as well. They're along the lateral by Frisch's.
Unfortunately, have never set foot in Cincinnati, Ohio. Have always been fascinated about its history, though. It was an early "gateway city to the west" for American expansion, from the east coast. It had (has) a wealth of Bavarian Catholics, which contributed to alot of its intellectual artsy aura. It was an early & important major-city for America. My first exposure to your city: 1972 Reds & WKRP (tv show).
You know what else Cincy has, A $50 million transit center under Second street that runs the entire length of Second street and can also support light rail that is fully complete but remains entirely unused. I guess Cincy has a history of just building and then abandoning public transit infrastructure
I live in dayton, but have frequented the greater metro cinci area, and would have loved to see this subway materialize...then there was Ted Strickland's 3-C proposal, to have a high speed rail connecting Cinci, COLs, and Cleveland, and would pass through Dayton and Springfield as well...sadly, Kasich ditched the plan
Agreed. The idea that Strickland had for the underground high speed rail system to connect the three C's was phenomenal, but not feasible with existing technology, but we might be able to accomplish it in the future. If we ever do, Ohio will become America's biggest tourist attraction. Being able to visit three large cities, each with their own unique culture, in a single night out is something that everyone in the world would be interested in. Ohio is the only state in America where such a thing could be accomplished. But technology has to advance before that can happen.
They should open it up to street fare sellers and performance artists. All year round even in the snow -- have space heaters down there. Let local artists paint the walls with graffiti. It will be a great tourist attraction and the city can charge rent for spaces. Pay for the street cars above.
Obviously Rochester isn't the only city with a shuttered subway line. Cincinnati also has a shuttered subway. Seeing all the increased traffic congestion on both I-71 and I-75, probably it is time for Cincinnati business and civic leaders to revisit the subway system and seriously consider reopening it and retrofitting it for 21st century transportation needs. There are too many cars clogging up downtown Cincinnati. A similar situation also exists up in Rochester, NY the other city with an abandoned subway line.
Now were going to have a 14 million dollar plus two mile long trolly train to no where. Yea!
there are so many things related to cincinnati that do not make sense, or seem unbelievable. it's easy to think how if only a few things could have happened differently, or fell into place along the way, cincinnati would be totally different, and a much better place to be in. even in it's current state, a few modifications, or adjustments to existing conditions would seem like an idea to revisit. instead, it is forgotten or totally scraped for a new idea, to start from scratch on, not knowing if it will work, or last over time. and, here we go, repeat.
As a lifelong Cincinnatian I couldn't agree more. At the turn of the 20th century, we were destined for greatness, and were experiencing widespread growth on a scale comparable to that of Chicago. Dayton was also thriving and growing, and the two cities were on their way to collide with one another; creating a single, sprawling metropolis that would've matched the population of NYC. Unfortunately, we elected some downright awful politicians, and our growth came to a screeching halt. It would've been interesting to see how we would've ended up had it not been for our incompetent local government. That being said, I still love my hometown, and we have most of the things that NYC and Chicago have; just not nearly as much of it.
We need it asap!
UN-BE-LIEVE-A-BLE!!...........so interesting and mysterious...
Ohhh...I love the Bengals. What position do you play??
One reason the project failed was that the Cincinnati city streetcars had a wider track gauge than the numerous interurban lines feeding into Cincinnati, which were standard gauge. This kept the Interurbans off Cincinnati streets, and out of downtown, which helped kill them off. By the time the tunnels were finished, there were no interurban lines left to feed into them.
Unfortunately the City built a huge waterline through these tunnels making it extremely difficult to even consider re using them for a train system BUT what if we were to tear out the roads and fill those subways with water re creating the legendary Canal system that once made its way through our fine city? Imagine the draw a beautiful canal would bring to our tourism industry and also the access small delivery ships would have to bring products and wares from the Ohio. Venice,Chi...Cincinnati!
There should be a Kickstarter project to keep building the subway
Philadelphia has one too
Is this complete documentary available for purchase?
Still, an interesting video! I like it. I lived there for a while and I never knew this existed. I'll have to go back, see it someday ....
This sounds SO MUCH like Pittsburgh. Ironically, We HAVE a subway...But it does NOT serve the areas that NEED it. (and it took 80 years to build...) 🤦♂️
Sad... same happened here in Göteborg, Sweden. Lots of tramways were removed, because people didn't use it... 40 years later (or even more) the city is screaming for the tramway... people are just stupid and thinks just as far as their nose go...
Toledo (Cincinnati) home of the Toledo Navada male cat in Ultimate Supreme Football, and Toledo Red Jax they're Russian lift jacks in MLBaseball, While Chince Proper and Chince U has a great presence, there on Saturdays. Did you see what I did...
They should come back and finish it
Why did they close it?
Never opened in the first place. They stopped construction midway through.
@@randomcontentgenerator2331 too bad
"New York City has, by far, the highest rate of public transportation use of any American city, with 54.2% of workers commuting to work by this means in 2006" - The majority of New Yorkers don't commute by car so traffic isn't a issue, (for most). And the city itself would not function at all without the subway. That said, the current urban neighborhoods of Cincinnati are not dense enough to support a subway, but they are growing, quite rapidly at the moment. The price of gasoline goes one way..
Don't forget i75 construction and the Brent Spence Bridge in the billions (1,000 million = 1 billion)
It's really a cool idea but think of how much more time and money need to be dumped into this project before it can be completed let alone the money it would need for maintenance. All that being said it's a better deal to just build a road, it costs way less and there are no needed specialty licences for operation.
getting uptown was funded by the state but then John Kasich(R) happened and invested in more roadwork in his own county, (true story!)
yep.
You can see the train entrance right next to I-75.
Oh and Toledo Mejoun-s in PLH (NHL)
They never mentioned THIS on "WKRP"...
City council is planning to lay off Cops and Fire Fighters. In the same breathe they talk about how they want to spend 14 mil on a trolly system? If thats ur idea of a healthy sign of growth, I'm glad I live in the County.
While I find the Cincinnati Subway a great piece of "Uncompleted America", I wouldn't exactly call an few only partially built tunnel segments that were never even close to operational "A Subway System".
They completed nearly half of the 16 miles of tunnel and three stations that I know of..
I think there's only the stations and a couple miles of tunnel left today though they definitely had built a non-trivial amount of the project when they cancelled it.
why not finish it???
This is only one of the city's serious blunders! One of many! This year it's a streetcar system to circle a few downtown city blocks at a huge huge huge cost! They haven't even broke ground and the Mayor has already bought the streetcars and paid for them, nearly bankrupting the city. Hey! I'll bet when he leaves office he will walk into a damn well paid job with the streetcar maker.
A subway to save Cincinnati? From traffic jams? From urban flight and loss of (doubtlessly ancient, now outmoted) businesses? Come on. Ask NYC - it's subways after all have eliminated traffic issues entirely. Let's just say, "I doubt it."
@CincinnatiKid10100 Gee, I've never seen water before.
No rapid mass transit around here yet but we do get a slow assed street car system that won't serve 5% of the city's population... This town's politics has a tradition of impotence.
dude...good way to bitchslap every grammar teacher in the world....my God
Ha thats funny to think that Cincinnati would ever have issues with railed transit.
I saw the premiere of this movie at Union Terminal, and it was utter shit. It was 90% politics and 10% history.
1928 that is long time
@CincinnatiKid10100 There is not and will never be a tourism industry in Cincinnati
We threw away a subway for a slow streetcar line?
i wish cincinnati would stop bein scard 2 do sumn dat will make us gud 4 sumn dey should fix itpeople need it now
It's not gonna happen because then they can't sell you cars, gas, and tires.
could have done without the distracting music
jim track actually it goes along well
glad to see cincinnati cynicism is still in full swing. 1. Downtown is opening businesses and bars all over with plans to draw tourism. 2. I think todays technology can handle mosquitos 3. I'm simply entertaining an Idea to help the city. Your negative outlooks on this city's potential are pretty disappointing.
If Cincinnati had finished the line, then jobs wouldn't have left downtown. LOL. What an economic illiterate.
corporatism.. the ugly aftermath of years of "small government" capitalism
Well hopefully you can learn to speak English and convince them to.
@CincinnatiKid10100 Tell me about it. Everyone thinks a streetcar is good and is a healthy sign of growth, but a few loud mouth negative nancy's ruin everything.
cheap labor
As told by liberals..who demand we should have things that we do not need.
At the turn of the 20th century, Cincinnati was growing as fast as NYC and Chicago. Traffic was becoming a nightmare. Utilizing the long-abandoned Miami and Erie canals made sense for emerging rapid transit.