For the past seven months I’ve been complaining that the Columbus Streetcar Plan Doesn’t Go to OSU.
Well, today I got to ask Mayor Coleman in person… “Why does the current streetcar proposal not reach up to OSU during phase one when the campus population is arguably one of the most transit-challenged demographics in all of Columbus”?
His answer was simple. It will.
Yep, straight from the horse’s mouth. He said that he was just in a Streetcar planning meeting yesterday and the plans are being revised for phase one of the proposed streetcar route to reach up to the Ohio State Campus. He wasn’t able to elaborate if that meant Lane Avenue or the South Campus Gateway since things are still in the planning phases, but either way it was great news to my ears.
The bad news though, is that the revised plan will not include German Village and the Brewery District in phase one due to the upcoming 70/71 reconstruction project. While I was a bit bummed to hear this (being a German Village resident) I can understand that it would be foolish to install streetcar tracks on highway overpasses that are going to get ripped out a year or two later and have to rebuild those portions of the tracks twice.
Anyway, I’m going to guess that a more formal announcement will follow next week during this 1000 Friends of Central Ohio Fundraiser event where Michael Reese, Chief of Staff to Columbus Mayor Coleman will update us on the Progress of the Downtown Streetcar Project.
But hopefully you can claim that you heard it here first. 
Wonderful news, but $50 to hear what might just be this? Yeargh, that would hurt. I’m still debating.
More from Paul over here.
All good – NODO (North Downtown) is where it’s at in this city right now. Eventually they’ll reach SODO (South Downtown). Make these streetcars free for riders, and this city would turn into a destination.
[...] in today’s Lantern that highlights the revised streetcar project that I mentioned in print here and on video here. The original streetcar concept wasn’t planned to reach all the way up to [...]
[...] a swift kick to the balls. That was the feeling after finding out that the starter streetcar line won’t be extended to my neighborhood because ODOT is 4 years behind schedule in their repairs of their worst debacle of the last [...]