KC Light Rail

We were pleased to see the KCATA at First Friday last night, luring potential new riders who might be too hesitant to jump aboard an "live" bus for the first time.

Just one parked bus allowed people to casually observe entering and exiting, the seating layout, and how to pay a fare. We'd love to see KCATA get more aggressive with marketing existing services at public gatherings. First Friday's are the perfect opportunity: frequently occurring and full of people actively seeking an urban experience.

If you missed them this week, check out the Rider Guide.

The Star has a write-up today about the city's budget problems and the impact that will have on transit funding this year. In short, cuts are coming. Interesting that ex-light-rail champion Ed Ford had this to say: "There’s no question we’re going to have to break promises we made with voters. It’s just a question of which ones and how many."

We'll remember that rhetoric during the next mayoral election.

Pro-transit forces in Congress were unable to shoehorn transit operating assistance into the final stimulus bill, so it's a story being repeated across the nation. Of course, the severity can be reduced here if the council had enough political capital to stand up to the interests that demand continued city subsidies to regional amenities (American Jazz Museum, Kansas City Zoo, Liberty Memorial, Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Center, and Truman Sports Complex).

At this rate, we'd be better off with a larger fare hike to retain existing service levels and the 17% farebox recovery target. $2 seems to be the new national trend and would raise about $5 million annually.

The city simply cannot continue to starve transit until it suffers from a complete lack of utility.

Two very different takes on the continued legal challenges from Clay Chastain: Star columnist Mike Hendricks and Scott Wilson on Pitch Weekly's Plog.

The Star printed a letter to the editor today from light rail advocate Clay Chastain indicating that he and wife Valerie are will file another appeal this month over the City Council's repeal of his successful ballot question in November 2006. Yes, it's been that long.

While we're still confident the Council was on sound legal footing — the ability to repeal a ballot initiative is a voter-approved part of the city's charter — we're now left with the frightening prospect that Chastain is literally the last figure out there fighting for some semblance of light rail in Kansas City.

- Funkhouser or Ford? Neutered, distracted, or both.
- Johnson? Deferring to Sanders.
- Sanders? Who the hell knows (and does he care?).

What's sad is that there is no one from the business community stepping up to make the next push (Hello, Downtown Council!!!), as we've seen in other successful cities (Denver, Portland, Charlotte) and those with fires still burning (Detroit). Instead, we're stuck with leaders pursuing one zero-sum game after another (convention hotel, pro-sports teams).

We'd really like to see business interests pick up on the Detroit model for a public-private partnership between the river and the Plaza. There is absolutely no reason why every single business/property owner or corporate interest along Main should be supporting this type of endeavor.

In the interim, city leaders should be listening very closely to the feedback from the Alternatives Analysis, which basically is a huge wake-up call for how land use is managed across the metro: STOP SPRAWLING AND SUBSIDIZING PARKING OR YOU WILL NEVER GET LIGHT RAIL OUTSIDE OF THE RCP CORRIDOR. If light rail and improved transit is as important as you said it was last fall, then you need to fix the root cause ASAP.

It's all here in black-and-white on the US Conference of Mayors website. A laundry list of infrastructure projects and not one of them has anything to do with public transportation. Lots of crap for the KCI and Water Services, however. Thanks, Kansas City!

And do you think this is unique to the municipal level? Nah. MoDOT's big wish list has a request for 200 buses (likely to be shared between the 6 or 7 agencies state-wide), but the total ask is twice as big as what's expected from the economic stimulus. We're guessing the buses get cut first in favor of roads and bridge. Thanks, Missouri!

Our only hope is that the next transportation funding bill levels the playing field so that all modes are competitive and get the same federal match. Gas taxes are going to need to rise — as will transit fares — so get ready for that eventuality. This, of course, requires an improvement in the sloth-like pace of county leaders who thought things were moving to fast… and by too fast we mean two years.

By Ron McLinden

Light rail in Kansas City? "Regional" transit? County and municipal elected officials in three Missouri counties have been talking for almost a year, but it's getting so you have to be able to read their minds to even correctly interpret what they say in public.

Last Friday (November 14) the "Regional Transit Steering Committee" met at MARC to talk about how to go forward. Present were the following: Raytown Mayor David Bower; KC Mayor Mark Funkhouser; KC Councilman Russ Johnson; Riverside Mayor Kathy Rose; Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders; Presiding Clay County Commissioner Ed Quick; Platte County Commissioner Betty Knight; outgoing Clay County Commissioner Craig Porter; and maybe one or two other. Also present were MARC staff, some transit consultants, and several RTA board members, along with reporters from The Kansas City Star, the Sun, and the Wall Street Journal (The WSJ is reportedly doing a story on Kansas City — presumably with a focus on the Mayor, so nobody is looking forward to reading it.).

Sanders was the most outspoken, saying it was important that talk of regional transit be slowed down (so as not to heighten public expectations), and that the three county leaders would need a few months to work out "governance" issues related to regional transit.

Maybe so, maybe not. I've never been convinced that "governance" is a necessary issue. Just have the three counties each pass a tax to support transit, and then negotiate separate contracts with the KCATA to provide service. (Ten local municipalities already do it this way.)

Even though there was talk of rail on Friday, rail transit seems all but dead for now. Kansas City voters have just said NO to light rail. Commuter rail is either too costly or simply not feasible: existing rail lines are either too busy carrying the nation's freight, or they're in such bad shape that it would cost megabucks to get them in shape so commuter trains could run at a reasonable speed. Light rail in the RCP corridor makes sense, but it's not likely that regional voters would OK a plan that has rail in the core and just buses everywhere else. Thus, we appear to be "on the road" to a bus-only system — if we get any expansion at all.

Meanwhile, I've heard reports that the county officials are actually leaning toward a county-by-county approach to providing better transit service. Realistically, that makes sense — at least in the near term. More and better transit — beginning tomorrow morning — is what we need, not interminable day-dreaming about commuter rail or squabbling about what street light rail should run on.

Eventually we need to get back to a rail-based system — one that supports and catalyzes a more compact and high-quality urban environment where people who want to escape the drive-everywhere paradigm — and be part of the solution to rising energy prices and climate change — can live their lives.

In retrospect, maybe the real accomplishment of the meeting was that the three county leaders — Sanders, Quick, and Knight — made it clear that they are taking the transit issue away from Mayor Funkhouser and Councilman Johnson.

Ron McLinden is transit reliant by choice and is a member of the Regional Transit Alliance. His views are his own.