How late at night will the streetcar run?

City Hall could suggest operating hours for Cincinnati’s streetcar this week – a decision to better accommodate people wanting to catch rides during a night out in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine.

A motion to establish the streetcar hours is expected to be put to a vote during City Council’s transportation committee meeting Tuesday and then the full council later this week.

It calls for the streetcar to run until 2 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights – potentially enhancing the experience in an urban core that has experienced a boom in new restaurants, bars and nighttime events in recent years.

“It will be a lot more restaurant- and bar-friendly,” Mayor John Cranley said. “It just makes more sense.”

Here’s a look at the hours the streetcar could run when the 3.6-mile system opens to paying passengers in mid-September:

• Monday through Wednesday – 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

• Thursday through Saturday – 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.

• Sunday – 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The frequency is not yet known, but it’s expected to be a mixture of 12-minute and 15-minute headways (or time between trains). That could potentially be a source of controversy, as streetcar proponents and Cranley have butted heads over how often the streetcar should run.

“There needs to be further discussion and a review of best practices from other streetcar systems,” said Over-the-Rhine resident Derek Bauman, regional director of All Aboard Ohio, a statewide passenger rail advocacy group. “This isn’t just for people late night at bars. This is for moving people around the city between every type of activity.”

City and Metro officials originally pitched to run the streetcar between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Sunday; and 6 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

Many residents voiced concern about those hours during a series of public meetings hosted by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority. They told officials they want the system to run later into the night.

Cranley views the later hours as a way to potentially maximize ridership.

Downtown and OTR have experienced an uptick in nighttime visitors, with events at redeveloped Fountain Square and Washington Park and the opening of new bars and restaurants across town. It’s all complemented nighttime staple events such as Reds games, Music Hall concerts and Aronoff Center performances.

Cranley this fall spearheaded efforts to enlist input from several Downtown and OTR restaurant and bar owners, hotel managers and Reds executives.

The mayor mentioned that Reds owner Bob Castellini, restaurateur Jean-Robert de Cavel, Taste of Belgium owner Jean-Francois Flechet and OTR sports bar owner Nick Lachey are among the people who met with Cranley to help shape the operating hours.

“This is something we are all working on together,” Cranley said.

City Council motions are nonbinding, and operating hours must be approved by the transit authority, which will operate the city-owned streetcar system. It’s not on the agenda for SORTA’s monthly board meeting Tuesday.

The Federal Transit Administration also has a say in operating hours, because federal tax dollars were used to build the $148 million streetcar system.

SORTA officials hope to have the operating hours set by February. Crews continue to test the streetcar vehicles on the tracks.

The city is scheduled to take delivery of its third streetcar vehicle Friday.