The Cincinnati Zoo Train Boondoggle

CINCINNATI - City Councilman John Cranley voted against financing of the streetcar plan that passed this week. Council had rejected Cranley's plan to paint pictures of streetcars on buses, or "rubber tire trolleys" as Cranley likes to call them.

Council's new plan includes a route in Uptown, which prompted Cranley to grill fellow council members on the fact that Uptown already has a rail route for mass transit.

"The zoo train has been around for many years now," said Cranley on Wednesday, "And it still hasn't done anything to revitalize the zoo's inner core around the reptile house."

Cranley also mentioned that even the trains at the Cincinnati airport hadn't increased neighboring property values.

"The zoo train and the airport trains are only used by people who go to the zoo and the airport," said Cranley, "What about the rest of us?"   

"Cincinnati doesn't need to look to Portland for examples," he said, "We've already got mass transit rail routes around here, and look at how they've failed miserably."