KC Light Rail

The Regional Transit Alliance issued this statement today regarding the plan — we hereby will always refer to it as The Johnson Compromise — put forth yesterday by Councilman Russ Johnson:

The Regional Transit Alliance applauds Kansas City, Missouri City Councilman Russ Johnson for proposing a bold compromise premised upon an initial city vote on a light rail starter line. In November, Kansas City voters can invest in a light rail spine that can connect seamlessly with the broader regional transit vision Mayor Funkhouser and others have started to explore.

Planning for the starter line has been underway for nearly two years. August approval of ballot language for the November election is nearly within our grasp. The federally mandated "Alternatives Analysis" planning process is on track to meet federal requirements for funding, and Councilman Johnson's proposal appears in great part to trust that process for this new public transit investment in the Kansas City region. The RTA shares that trust and believes that his ¼ cent sales tax proposal will be attractive to voters and the business community. We encourage the City Council to keep its focus on resolving the final details of the starter line for a November vote.

The RTA has comments on two facets of Councilman Johnson's proposal. First, we encourage the City of North Kansas City to explore its own funding options for extending the starter line to the Kansas City Water Works. This extension will not only be an economic development opportunity for North Kansas City, but it will also allow for development of a park-and-ride facility in Kansas City's Northland, an attractive feature for Kansas City, Missouri voters north of the river.

Second, we encourage the timely implementation of the Troost MAX transit project rather than streetcars or other modes of transportation. The Troost MAX line has been in the works for more than two years and has now been successfully funded for construction. This MAX line will be operational within the next 18 to 24 months. The Regional Transit Alliances believes that to suspend the project now and re-open the study can result in a loss of project dollars from the federal government and jeopardize Kansas City’s credibility with the Federal Transit Administration.

The Regional Transit Alliance is encouraged by these recent developments and believes that a successful light rail starter line is key to a comprehensive regional transit plan.

KCATA debuted a significant update to their main website today. There's a bit of an issue with the CSS (the Trip Planner is invisible to us… yes, we checked multiple browsers!), but we're sure they'll figure that out pretty quickly. While it's a very nice update for regular computer users, it's still a bit of a mess on mobile devices, including smartphones.

Not in KC, of course… just nationwide, according to the APTA. A couple of snippets worth noting:

• "Mass transit use increased by more than 2 percent in 2007 to the highest level in 50 years, with Americans taking more than 10 billion trips on public transport while the number of vehicle miles traveled was flat in the first 10 months of the year."
• "Cities with less than 100,000 people also saw a large increase — 6.4 percent — in public transportation use."

By contrast, KCATA ridership was a little over 15 million in 2007, compared to 46 million* in 1957 (the last year of the streetcar — coincidence? — after which ridership declined almost every year, hitting a low of 13 million in 2001).

* From Monroe Dodd's A Splendid Ride: The Streetcars of Kansas City, 1870-1957.

MARC will survey random commuters today through Nov. 15 to update the region's travel demand model. If you happen to get pulled over (see the map), please ask for light rail. The last "external survey" of this kind was conducted in 1971, so we're due for an update.

We've been added to a new, pro-transit blog aggregator hosted by the people behind The Overhead Wire. It's called City Transit Advocates… check it out!

We're taking a short summer break to enjoy rail in another part of the globe. Posts will resume on Aug. 9. In the interim, please be sure to apply for the Light Rail Citizens Task Force.