Omaha Symphony surprises Metro Transit riders on ORBT’s 4th birthday

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Metro Transit in Omaha celebrated a milestone Monday and the birthday of it’s Omaha Rapid Bus Transit — commonly known as ORBT. But instead of celebrating with cake and ice cream, the transportation service added a little music to the mix.

Few ever thought they’d hear live music on a bus. These members of the Omaha Symphony never thought they would be the ones playing the music, either.

“I’ve never played on a bus before so I’ll be excited to check that off my bucket list,”

This fun gives the Symphony a chance to take their music to the streets of Omaha, and maybe a chance to grow their audience.

“We want to showcase that our musicians are people in the community,” said Mark Champion with the Omaha Symphony. “They’re people who live by you, they commute next to you on the bus.”

This concert is a pretty good deal for the less than $2 it costs to get a ride. All the music is to celebrate ORBT’s fourth birthday, and the two million rides that came with it.

“If I take the bus twice in one day, that’s two trips, even though I’m still one person,” said Nicole Ebat with Metro Transit. “That’s two million trips that could have been a car. That’s two million times a car wasn’t on the road, creating traffic and just creating that congestion.”

Metro Transit officials tell First Alert 6 that the wheels on the bus in Omaha are going round and round more than ever before.

“We are seeing steady ridership month over month over month,” Ebat said. “More people are riding ORBT and riding along the Dodge corridor than ever have in the history of Omaha.”

Ebat doesn’t believe the streetcar coming to Omaha will take away from ORBT’s success. Instead, she believes the two modes of transportation will complement each other nicely — almost like a relay team.

“One of the things that busses and ORBT as a whole really excels in doing is bringing people from kind of the outskirts of Omaha, the outer skirts of the urban core, and bringing them closer to the inside. And once they get into the streetcar, that will help them get around those miles and blocks.”

This concert from the Omaha Symphony was a surprise for riders, but Ebat says there are many reasons more people are riding the bus.

“Of course, you’re going to have people who understand the environmental impact that cars have and they want to be able to lighten that by taking the bus,” Ebat said.