OMAHA- Omaha business leaders unsuccessfully tried to secure federal funding for the long-discussed streetcar project earlier this year.

The move is the latest sign that Omaha’s business community is continuing to push for creation of a streetcar.

“We are extremely serious about this,” said Jay Noddle, the developer who heads the public-private group focused on Omaha’s urban core. “We’ve never been more serious. It’s one of the more important and therefore more impactful things that can happen in the core of the city.”

This spring, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, along with City of Omaha and local transportation officials, attempted to get an $8 million federal earmark to fund the design of the long-discussed streetcar project that would connect downtown and midtown Omaha.

However, the earmark, requested by U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., was not included in a federal transportation bill currently making its way through Congress, his office said last week.

The federal earmark was sought to help pay for a $10 million “environmental review and final design” for the project. But lawmakers did not include the request in the Invest in America Act, which could go to a final vote in the House this week, Bacon’s office said.

Bacon made the request after being asked by the city to do so. The city’s request to Bacon was made on behalf of the Omaha chamber, according to Mayor Jean Stothert’s office.

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