Scott Wartman

swartman@enquirer.com

A streetcar crossing the Ohio River might seem far-fetched, considering the obstacles it faced in Cincinnati.

But some residents and leaders have, at least, started to lay out the framework for a possible streetcar in Northern Kentucky.

In a proposed design revealed Thursday, the streetcar would cross the Taylor-Southgate Bridge into Newport. It would then go through the Ovation development site across the Fourth Street Bridge into Covington.

A group of residents, business leaders and elected officials known as the Northern Kentucky Streetcar Committee came up with the design and will seek $300,000 from the federal government for a study, said Ian Budd, a Newport resident and head of the committee.

"It connects Newport and Covington, which I think is fantastic," Budd said. "At the moment when I travel on public transportation from Newport to Covington, I have to go through Cincinnati. I think we want the cities to be more connected and working together."

Budd and streetcar proponents from Cincinnati spoke about the benefits of a streetcar Thursday in Covington, at a lunch hosted by the Covington Business Council.

Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach, former Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls and Cincinnati streetcar advocate John Schneider also spoke at the event touting the streetcar.

Budd and Newport City Commissioner Beth Fennell will travel to Washington, D.C. in February to lobby for federal funds to study a streetcar in Northern Kentucky.

"The opportunities are limitless," Budd said. "Connecting the streetcar to the airport is quite possible, as well."

All the proponents of the streetcar acknowledged the uphill battle faced in Northern Kentucky. After all, this is a place where tea party groups tried to eliminate library funding. Even repairs to a clubhouse in Devou Park faced opposition.

It'll probably be 20 years before a streetcar crosses into Northern Kentucky, said Covington Mayor Sherry Carran. But it needs to be talked about, she said.

"I think through having a discussion we can learn the pros and cons as to whether the streetcar would be a good fit for Northern Kentucky," Carran said. "We won't know that until there's a discussion. It's a shame that you're criticized for even wanting to explore the opportunity."

The groundwork laid by Cincinnati could expedite the process in Northern Kentucky, the Cincinnati officials from Cincinnati told the crowd Thursday. It'll be an easier sale when they see how it works in Cincinnati, Schneider said.

"We made a terrible mistake in Cincinnati: We let our opponents define the project," Schneider said. "For 20 years, we had an idea in Cincinnati. Now we have a product. It's tough to argue with a product."

The idea of streetcars in Northern Kentucky isn't new. The predecessor to Vision 2015, Forward Quest, proposed a monorail in Northern Kentucky in the 1990s. Cincinnati built lower ramps to facilitate streetcars going into Northern Kentucky when it redesigned Fort Washington Way in the late 1990s, Qualls said.

"People have been anticipating this for a long time," Qualls said. "It's a local decision and it's going to require tremendous local support from the constituencies and courage on the part of elected officials to put up with a lot of pushback."