KC Light Rail

Your source for news and information on Kansas City’s light rail progress

Letters

Thanks to the Star's Unfettered Letters blog, you can leave comments on letters to the editor that also appear in the printed newspaper. We also like the fact that you can just read (or avoid) letters in a specific category, such as Transit, which will give you a nice digest of what the rest of Kansas City is saying about light rail.

4 Comments so far

  1. northlander August 31st, 2007 5:24 pm

    So why are we looking at Light Rail when we know it will cost to much and won’t go over the river?
    Kite already said streetcars carried 135,000 people a day back in the 50’s so why not now? Streetcars come in at a lower cost per mile[$25 million]. We could go 10 miles for $250 million,plus the cars for $1-$1.3 million each and still have money left over. And they would be able to go over the bridges at 50,000 lbs each.

  2. Dave September 1st, 2007 8:31 am

    as long as we don’t have them stopping every block, i’d have no problem with a *modern* streetcar. that said, i have no interest in systems like those in little rock or kenosha that really do look like “touristy frou-frou” and take longer than walking at a brisk pace (kinda like the MAX through the downtown loop). one could also argue that if we wanted to upgrade to real light rail in the future (which would be almost necessary for expansion), the cost would be as much as doing light rail spine correctly today.

    leave the lower cost streetcars to brookside, 18th street, downtown circulation, etc.

  3. northlander September 3rd, 2007 6:48 am

    You are correct the streetcars would be for the starter line to get a feel if it can be sucessful in Kansas City. With the sprint center the Max or any tye transit won’t be going to fast when we have events downtown or at rush hour. But 25 years later Light Rail will cost far more than KC can afford because of the population in KC.

  4. John September 6th, 2007 8:43 pm

    Ideally, Kansas City would put in a streetcar/ tram network in and connecting areas such as: downtown, crown center, plaza, brookside, and maybe even parkway mall. And then later on install a more metrolike (aka faster) train that would run along the highways around the city, connecting the suburban areas. The problem is the population with Kansas City. We need to see into the future, see the potential benefits of putting in a REAL transit system (sorry MAX), and be willing to spend some extra dough to make it happen. Having such a system would not only refine Kansas City’s image, but also create a less costly (in the long run) alternative to the car. Seriously, think about how much we spend on gas money these days. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to hop onto a tram/metro everyday to get to work, and spend far less buying a metrocard than filling up the tank. We just have to be willing to make an investment now.

Leave a reply