page_title: Transportation in Omaha
section_title: Public transportation
hierarchical_section_title: Transportation in Omaha / 1950-present / Public transportation
caption_attribution_description: English: en:South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge from the south on the Nebraska side. Photo by poster in December 2006.
context_page_description: Transportation in Omaha, Nebraska, includes most major modes, such as pedestrian, bicycle, automobile, bus, train and airplane. While early transportation consisted of ferries, stagecoaches, steamboats, street railroads, and railroads, the city's transportation systems have evolved to include the Interstate Highway System, parklike boulevards and a variety of bicycle and pedestrian trails. The historic head of several important emigrant trails and the First Transcontinental Railroad, its center as a national transportation hub earned Omaha the nickname "Gate City of the West" as early as the 1860s.
  During a tumultuous pioneer period characterized by its centrality in proximity to the Western United States, transportation in Omaha demanded the construction of massive warehouses where frontier settlers could stock up and communities west of Omaha got food and supplies to build themselves with. Riverboats and stagecoaches jammed the riverside city with a variety of newcomers, prospectors and shady characters. Early Omaha also landed the Union Pacific Railroad headquarters, leading to its important place in national railroad lore.
context_section_description: The Omaha Traction Company, which operated as the Street Railway Company, changed its name to the Omaha Transit Company when streetcar service ended in the city in 1952. After World War II Omahans preferred their automobiles and new highways. When the Urban Mass Transit Act of 1964 was passed, Omaha's private transit companies were not able to apply for federal subsidies available to public transit operators. The Omaha Transit Company ceased operations on June 30, 1972, when the City of Omaha assumed authority for public transportation in the city. City Transit Lines, another private company in Omaha, went out of business on that day as well. The Metro Area Transit Authority was created by the Nebraska Legislature, consisting of a five-member board appointed by the mayor and confirmed by Omaha's City Council and the Douglas County Commissioners. It acquired the assets of the Omaha Transit Company and selected assets of the City Transit Lines of Council Bluffs, along with more than $3,000,000 in federal funding. The Authority operates today as Metro Transit.
  Today the Authority supervises the level of service, miles and hours of operation within Omaha, and maintains individual service contracts with local authorities outside Omaha. Currently, Metro has three contracts, including the cities of Council Bluffs, Bellevue and the Tri-Communities of Ralston, LaVista and Papillion.
  Metro recently completed three new transit centers, which function much like airport hubs. Located at Benson Park, Westroads Mall, and Metro Community College in South Omaha, they are designed to bolster the city's public busing needs. These join existing centers in Midtown and North Omaha.
  Construction on ORBT, a bus rapid transit system is scheduled to begin in fall of 2018.
caption: The South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge from the Nebraska side.
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