OMAHA — A financial assessment done for the city estimates it would cost $156 million to build and equip a streetcar line linking downtown Omaha to midtown. It would cost about $7.5 million a year to operate the line, reported the Omaha World-Herald.

The assessment, which tabs the estimated cost of operating the line at $7.5 million,  leans toward using an assortment of local funding sources, including city money, philanthropic donations and tax-increment financing from real estate developments to pay for and run the line, the report said.

The report’s authors project that a locally funded streetcar could be built by 2021, but a federally funded project would take 18 months longer, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

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