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Though RideKC is the star of the newest American streetcars, the Cincinnati Bell Connector is sort of the little engine that couldn’t — at least, not yet.

The $148 million Cincinnati streetcar, which began running in September 2016, has struggled to attract riders. It has been plagued by service delays and financial problems. The original route was pared back from 5 miles to 3.6, and it almost didn’t even get built due to political opposition. That included Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s scuttling the state funding that would build the line to the Uptown area, home to the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The Cincinnati streetcar was projected to have about 3,200 riders a day. It has had about two-thirds that many. It has been credited, however, with boosting economic redevelopment, and its finances have improved.

Still, it’s on the list of modern streetcars that have struggled to attract as many riders as projected, including Atlanta; Tampa, Florida; Detroit; and Little Rock, Arkansas.

“Kansas City is probably the best of them, by far the most successful, but that’s only relative to other streetcar cities,” said Jeffrey Brown, an urban planning professor at Florida State University. He has been studying the streetcar trend and is a skeptic.