[jmecklenborg]

To clarify the situation - SORTA (the public bus company, which is now supported by a county sales tax) runs the bus system. The City of Cincinnati built the streetcar line and operates it independent of SORTA. The funding for the streetcar came from federal TIGER grants and other funding sources not legally available to the bus system. It's like arguing that you should have bought a house with a football scholarship.

The streetcar stopped running for several months during the 2020 pandemic. Since service restarted, they have generally run 3 of the 5 streetcars during peak hours and 2 off-peak. The reliability of the streetcar's operation has improved dramatically because the volume of downtown traffic still hasn't returned to 2019 levels.