The marriage between Cincinnati Metro and the streetcar is on the rocks, and officials are talking about a divorce.

Cincinnati City Councilman David Mann confirmed on Tuesday that conversations have started between the city and Metro about dropping Metro's oversight of the streetcar. The revelation – which would hand the reins back to the city, cutting out Metro as a middleman – comes after a tough year for the Cincinnati Bell Connector.

Ridership numbers are dropping, well below projections.

And on Friday, news broke that Cincinnati Bell, which bought the naming rights for the streetcar, is having second thoughts.

A spokeswoman for the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, the agency that runs Cincinnati Metro, did not respond on Tuesday to a request for comment, but Mann confirmed separation talks are underway.

"I can see the city running it totally, with an operator, and cutting out SORTA," he said.

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Right now, there's a three-pronged operating structure for the streetcar. It's a city project, but the city contracts with Metro to oversee operations. Metro, in turn, contracts with a company called Transdev to run the streetcar day-to-day.

The thought was Metro's transit expertise would be a positive for the streetcar, but the arrangement has been troubling.

Metro is suffering from its own budget and ridership woes, and the streetcar has only added to that headache.

In July, as Metro was going back and forth over whether to ask voters for a levy, opponents made it clear they would try to use the streetcar's failures to kill the bid. The levy would have been for the bus system, not the streetcar, but that distinction might not have mattered to voters.

On the city side, officials have a vested interest in making the streetcar work. The federal government paid for a large chunk of the project, and in return, the city promised to run the streetcar for 25 years. It's here, and the city must either run it or be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars.

Too often under the current structure, though, nothing gets done. Metro officials are fearful to move on the streetcar without checking first with city council. For example, when the compressors were freezing, council members wanted answers. Metro said council members should ask city administrators and Transdev. But the city said it had hired Metro to handle such matters.

Streamlining operations won't be easy. Transdev's contract is with Metro and would have to be re-written if Metro is out of the mix. That could end up making the deal more expensive. But, with three years left on the contract, streetcar fixes can't afford to wait.

The bottom line? When decisions aren't made, it's riders who suffer.

“From the beginning, I was concerned about the efficiencies of having a tri-party working relationship between the City, SORTA and Transdev," said councilwoman Amy Murray. "I think streamlining this process between the owner and operator could be helpful as long as there’s no additional cost to the City.”

This isn't exactly a new idea. This past December, Metro actually voted on a proposal to ditch the streetcar. Then- board member Gary Greenberg urged the agency to focus on bus service, calling the streetcar a "costly distraction and diversion."

That measure went down 8-3, but Metro's board has since turned over, and the idea is back on the table.

There are other ideas in play to help the streetcar, too. Councilman Greg Landsman pitched and found support to hire a streetcar executive whose primary responsibility would be the success of the project. The job is posted now and Landsman said he expects it will be filled "within weeks"

"We can't maintain the status quo and expect better results," Landsman said. "The project needs real change, beginning with leadership."