RTA committed to reopening Waterfront Line in time for Browns’ regular season

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - RTA leadership told 19 News Thursday that its plan to reopen the Waterfront Line in time for the Browns’ regular season is still on track.

“The construction schedule for the bridge is moving on schedule,” said the RTA deputy general manager for engineering and project management Michael Schipper.

The rail line connects sports fans to Cleveland Browns Stadium, but it has been closed for nearly 2 years. Residents in the Flats, as well as Brown’s supporters, are concerned if the route will be finished on time.

When 19 News asked Alyssa Duncan if she believed the train route would be ready, she was hesitant: “just as confident as the potholes they said they were going to fix too.”

Schipper said today that the project has not experienced any major delays: “We’re actually on the original timetable that we set two years ago when we closed the bridge.”

Any possible delay to the project could mean a big financial hit for Browns fans. Residents explain event parking downtown is expensive. And Cleveland City Council has proposed legislation that would increase special event parking at the Muni Lot to $70.

“Going to $70 I think is going to be hard for a lot of people,” said Kai, who lives in the Flats neighborhood and chose not to share his last name. “It’s hard economic times, so I don’t think that would be a great solution.”

Schipper added that RTA’s intention has always been to prepare the route for this regular season: “If parking is going to be higher, it’s that many more reasons for fans to use RTA to get to the stadium.”

As Clevelanders continue to wait, many have wondered when it would ever run again.

“I thought it was an old train that was not going to run anymore,” Kai said.

Schipper with RTA believes those concerns will be alleviated once service returns: “A lot of times, those our people that don’t travel RTA all the time, but they go to events. For our customers that do that, we want to have that line back up and running so they can take advantage of those events.”

According to Schipper, the repairs cost about $10 million. The bulk of the work lies in repairing the waterfront bridge.

“The bridge opened in 1996 for the bicentennial,” he said. “We’re doing a mid-life overhaul so that it could last another 15, 20 years.”