KC Light Rail

You said it wouldn't happen. Surely, Jackson County & Friends would pick up the leftovers from the failed light rail vote and kick the regional conversation into high gear. Johnson County leaders won't play ball and "don't get it". Well, you were wrong. Today's Star notes that Johnson County will soon surpass what Kansas City is spending on transit. Yes, you read that right.

KCATA 2008 budget: ~$48 million
The JO budget in 5 years: $52 million

Planned improvements include bus rapid transit lines, expanded commuter routes, park-and-ride lots, and better links to regional transit services.

Of course, the cities in Johnson County — a completely urbanized patchwork of older first-ring suburbs and sprawling over-consumption — must match the investment with facilities to support transit. Most major thoroughfares lack contiguous sidewalks, an absolute prerequisite for bus riders. Good luck finding a bus shelter, too.

Our wish list for Johnson County — knowing the above prerequisite will not and probably cannot be met, ever — consists of expanded commuter services. The biggest successes in Johnson County use this model: notably the K-10 service and all downtown KCMO routes. While BRT would match well with a significantly reworked Metcalf Avenue, it's unlikely the current infrastructure would ever support any other local services beyond paratransit. Direct airport routes centered around the county's malls with spare parking capacity (Metcalf South, Town Center, Great Mall) would probably be runaway hit, too, since a good chunk of KCI's customers would never waste time taking an indirect route through downtown KC.

Johnson County Transit has submitted the I-35 "fixed guideway" (i.e. Bus Rapid Transit) project to be considered for the economic stimulus package that's being hashed out over the holidays. Unfortunately, KDOT hasn't figured out whether it can run a bus on a freeway shoulder — especially one with much-maligned left exits. BRT was recently selected as the "preferred alternative" over commuter rail due to cost and ridership concerns.

KCK has applied for funding for "State Avenue Rehabilitation", which includes "curb, sidewalk, and street rehabilitation, street lights". Presumably this would help improve the corridor in advance of the State Avenue BRT line that is in early planning stages.

The rest of the list is here. KCMO's list is blank at this time.

No Soup For You:

• No free holiday cab service this year (KMBC)
• Krugman: Obama stimulus not enough (CBS News)
• Where are oil prices headed in 2009? (CNN)
• Light rail attracts 150,000 in opening Phoenix weekend (KNXV)

Metro Route Changes (effective 1/5/09):

• #28-Blue Ridge Ends Independence Trips
• #28X Changes Afternoon Times
• #51-Ward Parkway Adds Stop
• #57-South Oak Changes Times On One Trip
• #71-Prospect To Eliminate One Trip
• #101 Changes Times On One Trip
• #102 To Serve Prescott Plaza, End Union Station, Bethany Medical Service
• #106-Quindaro Changes Times On One Trip
• #129-I-29 Express Adds Rush Hour Trips
• #135 Changes Times On First Trip
• #142-North Oak Adds Rush Hour Trips
• #243 Changes Route Near Argosy
• #260 Changes Indian Springs Route
• Independence Fare Increase, Service Changes

Kansas City's attorney filed a brief today responding to the appeal of the dismissal of Clay Chastain's challenge to the City Council's repeal of his light rail petition initiative that passed in November 2006.

Did you follow that? Well, it's not that important. The challenge was dismissed and the appeal will probably be dismissed, as well. Meh.

In retrospect, the Council's outright repeal of the "unworkable" plan seems especially foolish — not for any legal reason, but simply for the fact that changing the plan with a subsequent vote would have avoided the November 2008 failure at the ballot box.

But here we are, regardless, with our smelly buses, waiting patiently for county leaders to get moving on a regional plan so Chastain can't come back with another initiative (because, let's face it, he will). Recent budget crunches at all levels will put the inevitable off for another year, and Kansas City will continue to evade a reputation as a serious metropolitan area.

Please contact your Congressional representatives this week to tell them you want as green an economic stimulus as possible. This is especially important for Missouri residents since our own Senator Kit Bond is on the powerful Senate appropriations committee.

While we've noted that Kansas City's own stimulus project list contains money for trails, sidewalks, and sewers — as well as a MoDOT request for more buses — there are a lot of road/highway/interchange items on the list that would not qualify as green whatsoever. Yes, they're "shovel ready", but if the lists must be cut — and they will be — the priorities should go with jobs and green. They are not mutually exclusive.