12.7.08

M.U.D. pushes natural gas option
By: Nancy Gaarder, Omaha World-Herald

Mayor Mike Fahey may be intent on an electric streetcar system, but officials at a local utility think they have a better idea: a natural gas-powered system.

Such a system would be "better for the city," said Tom Wurtz, president of Metropolitan Utilities District, who last week was given permission by his board to approach the city. M.U.D. distributes natural gas and water in the metro area.

M.U.D. is promoting its idea as one that would save taxpayers millions of dollars if it were to be based on vehicles such as Ollie the Trolley. After all, with bus-like trolleys, the streets wouldn't have to be torn up and gas and water mains wouldn't have to be moved or insulated.

But city officials say M.U.D.'s idea about trolleys misses the point. The proposed streetcar system, which includes tracks embedded in the streets, is intended as an economic development and tourism tool.

Cities that have installed streetcars with tracks have seen multiple benefits, said Steve Jensen, director of planning for Omaha.

Developers are more attracted to the area because of the permanence of the tracks, people who live along them can rely on them for transportation, and tourists can find them more easily, Jensen said.

If that's the case, then M.U.D. officials say they would like Omaha to power its track-based system with natural gas. It's not clear that any other city has done so, but Wurtz said he believes Omaha could be a first.

A study being undertaken by HDR Inc. will examine the feasibility of a streetcar system and in doing so will look at a trolley-type system based on rubber tires, Jensen said. The study will help determine the cost of any system. An earlier study pegged the cost of one route at $55 million.

Wurtz and his senior staff told the M.U.D. board last week that a system with embedded tracks could carry added cost because the utility's natural gas and water mains probably would have to be moved or insulated against stray electrical current.

M.U.D. typically picks up the cost of work on its mains when street work is done. This is one time, Wurtz said, that M.U.D. shouldn't pay the bill because installing streetcar tracks falls outside routine street repairs.

Jensen would not commit the city to picking up M.U.D.'s costs but said those issues would be dealt with as the analysis proceeds.

M.U.D., along with Metro Area Transit, will be at the table as the city moves forward, Jensen said.

Curt Simon, executive director of Metro Area Transit, said it's hard to say whether there would be much difference in ridership between a bus-like trolley and a streetcar with embedded tracks. Like city officials, he said the difference between the two has more to do with the potential for economic development.

"It's a lot sexier to ride on a streetcar than it is on a bus," he said. "A streetcar has some appeal inherently that a bus may not, but whether that would transfer into increased ridership, I don't know."

Independent of the streetcar system, M.U.D., MAT and the city have been in preliminary talks about powering buses and other vehicles with natural gas.

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