KC Light Rail

The best way to avoid the crush of basketball fans downtown over the next month is to take the bus to the game. All of the upcoming Big 12, NCAA, and NAIA events this month are steps away from nearly every route in the metro.

First, use Google Transit to plan your trip, then read on while we demystify Kansas City's transit scene.

MAX

If you live close to the MAX route, you're in luck: KCATA is increasing service every day of the Big 12 Tournament (March 10-14). If coming from farther afield, park free in any of the free garages on the Plaza (the two closest to the Plaza MAX stop are across the street from each other, by Jack Stack Barbecue). There is also a free park-and-ride at 74th & Wornall, but the MAX doesn't run as frequently south of the Plaza.

VENUES

• Sprint Center is within a three-block walk of almost every bus route that serves downtown. The entrance on Oak Street is less congested. Grand Boulevard will be closed March 10-14, likely leading to large crowds at the main entrance. Riders should be aware that the "Arena" stop is temporarily west of Grand.
• Municipal Auditorium is next to Bartle Hall, one block west of Broadway, and best served by MAX (13th & Wyandotte) or #25. Most other KCATA routes require a bit more walking, but none more than 6 blocks.

FARES & PASSES

We highly recommend buying a day pass when you get on board. It's only $3, which covers your inbound and outbound ride, and can be bought on board. Bus drivers can't make change, but they can give you a change card for any bills or coins you have, that can be used for future rides.

GOOGLE TRANSIT

The best thing about Google Transit isn't that it gives you the fastest trip at your desired departure or arrival time – online trip planners have been doing that for years — it's the combination of displaying bus stops (the tiny blue bus icon) with their corresponding routes (click on that icon) on a map, and Street View.

Let's say the bus stop closest to you is only served by one route, but the one two blocks in the other direction is served by three routes (therefore offering more departures)… that's a powerful tool for transit users. Use Street View to see exactly what the bus stop's surroundings are like; is there a shelter, a bench, or even a sidewalk?

If you're a smartphone user, download Google Maps for mobile right now. Transit directions are now available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS, Nokia, and Windows Mobile.

THE JO

Since many of the games will be during the weekday, using The JO to get downtown from Johnson County is also a great idea. Plan accordingly, as most routes don't run after 6 p.m. We recommend using the park-and-ride at 6000 Lamar due the number of routes available and the shorter travel time.

All JO routes are also on Google Transit. The JO's fare is $2 and they accept transfers from KCATA. However, they do not accept KCATA passes nor do they provide change cards.

Enjoy your hoops!

While some media outlets thought otherwise, it's not entirely clear after today's TIGER announcement that the downtown streetcar is completely unfunded. Unfortunately, it takes a bit of math to deduce where the entire $50 million award will go. The full request [PDF] was $88.761 million.

In practical terms, the entire amount will go to MARC to be distributed to various agencies who handle the Green Impact Zone of Missouri (GIZMO) and transportation services in the metro — the latter being handled exclusively by KCATA, The JO, and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.

Of the $50 million awarded to KC today, however, GIZMO and bus corridor improvements cover only about $48 million. The Bike KC, Front Street interchange, and West Bottoms freight rail projects were not specifically mentioned, which leaves the remaining transit project — design and engineering for the downtown modern streetcar — up in the air. We have yet to hear from KCATA about their take on today's event.

Streetcar awards were confirmed for Dallas, Tucson, New Orleans, and Portland. Streetcar requests that didn't make the cut were Cincinnati, Boise, Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, and Atlanta.

Another smaller round of streetcar-specific funding using unspent transit dollars — not stimulus — will be awarded later this year; Kansas City is unable to apply for that program because it has not delivered the local match required.

As for the other nationwide winners and losers in today's announcement [PDF], Streetsblog, The Infrastructurist, and The Transport Politic have excellent posts that cover the big picture.

Hope you enjoyed our live tweets. We also finally figured out video (see above), and MARC has plenty of pictures.

UPDATE: KCATA confirmed Thursday morning that the streetcar element was not funded. Their site has been updated with details about the bus corridor improvements.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be in KC this week, as well as Los Angeles and Tucson. All three cities had downtown modern streetcar components in their TIGER grant applications. Grant winners were Congressionally mandated to be announced by Feb. 17.

It's likely that the appearance location will relate to a part of the application, which could include the Green Impact Zone, the riverfront, or Union Station (which would be on the streetcar route and conveniently makes a great photo op).

UPDATE: Here's an article detailing LaHood's Thursday appearance in Tucson.
UPDATE 2: The White House has confirmed that LaHood will be in Kansas City tomorrow, along with stimulus-related appearances by other cabinet members. Still no official word on where the KC event will take place, but we've received unofficial word that it will be in the Green Impact Zone, not Union Station.
UPDATE 3: MARC has just confirmed the event will take place at 10:30 a.m. CST at the Green Impact Zone offices, 4600 Paseo. Mayor Mark Funkhouser and US Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver will also be present.

According to media reports nationwide, the US Department of Transportation will announce TIGER grant awards by Feb. 17.

Kansas City submitted a regional application that includes $6 million in design and engineering work for a downtown streetcar that would run between River Market and Crown Center. No local match is required for the $1.5 billion TIGER program.

Total capital cost of the 2-mile streetcar is $68.3 million, while operational costs of $2.1 million would need to come from a new revenue source (likely a TDD for the service area).

Other elements of the Kansas City application are funding for the Green Impact Zone, implementation of the Bike KC plan, improved bus facilities along SmartMoves corridors, West Bottoms freight rail capacity improvements, and a new highway interchange at I-35 and Front Street.

TIGER is a competitive grant program introduced in the Recovery Act. Previously, most transportation funding was disbursed using formulas that were not merit-based.

Keep an eye on our Twitter feed for the initial announcement.

An second, $280 million grant program specifically for Urban Circulators (buses or streetcars that serve users in a confined area, versus longer-distance commuters) was announced last month, but KCATA does not have the 20% local match required to apply in this tough budget year. The deadline for that $25 million grant is Feb. 8, with awards announced in "early 2010″. Many of Kansas City's peers will be applying, such as Charlotte, Tuscon, Omaha, San Antonio, and Fort Worth.

No, it ain't light rail, but it's definitely worth a mention here.

While not the location chosen for the announcement, Kansas City is getting an intercity passenger rail boost on two fronts today.

First, Amtrak's existing Kansas City-to-St. Louis Missouri River Runner route will get $31 million in upgrades to improve capacity and on-time performance. Even though on-time performance has been running in the 90% range for months, most of the improvement has come from reduced freight traffic and the threat of host railroad penalties made possible by Congressional action.

Two trains run daily — morning and late afternoon — between KC and St. Louis in each direction; annual ridership runs in the 150,000 to 200,000 range. Missouri pays an annual subsidy for operations, as is the case with most of Amtrak's corridor operations outside of the northeast. There's no indication the improvements will affect the scheduled 5:40 running time, but the timetable is likely to be revisited in coming years since it contains a lot of padding.

Increasing speeds is definitely a priority, but a third (mid-day) departure would increase the usefulness of the service dramatically. Also, now is a great time for Missouri and Illinois to jointly operate direct service between KC and Chicago (a change of trains is now required, though the once-daily Southwest Chief will probably always be a faster trip). A direct train would make the service more palatable to riders going between Hermann, MO and Alton, IL, for example.

Second, a grassroots effort to extend Amtrak's Heartland Flyer through Wichita to Kansas City was awarded funding for developing a service plan for the route. This route is not a federally-designated high-speed rail corridor, but is one of most glaring gaps in Amtrak's route map. Enabling legislation for the service was introduced in the current Kansas legislative session.

KC-bound passengers on both routes would end up at Union Station, terminus for both the proposed regional rail and downtown streetcar systems.

Other big regional winners were the St. Louis-to-Chicago corridor (which will eventually run at 110 mph), Madison-to-Milwaukee (new service), Detroit-to-Chicago, and a service plan for new services in Iowa.