KC Light Rail

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

Archive for the 'SmartMoves' Category

Housekeeping

No big news on KC light rail planning, but here are some other recent transit-related tidbits:

  • KCATA has updated their trip planner: it's now MacOS friendly. Think you can't take the bus to work? Better check again!
  • Last night, KCPT and By The People held a follow-up to the Oct. 20 transit forum. This event was not televised, but this time we were chosen to participate. We'll post the final report here once we receive it. The original forum will be re-broadcast on Jan. 4.
  • MARC is also hosting a follow-up to their SmartMoves workshops that were held in various parts of the metro throughout the fall. This time there are only two sessions — Dec. 10 and 12 — and they're both accessible via public transit. RSVPs are recommended.
  • Mayor Funkhouser will be on KCUR's Up To Date Wednesday and light rail will be a topic. Air time is 11:00 a.m. CDT and the call-in number is 816-235-2888. Also available as a live stream and podcast.
  • MoDOT announced the winning design/build team for the new Paseo Bridge — soon to be "a landmark cable-stay Missouri River bridge expandable to eight lanes and capable of accommodating a future bicycle/pedestrian facility once connectivity is established" — on Nov. 14. While it won't accommodate light rail and will open by 2011, be on the lookout for a new river crossing upstream that will be part of the revised light rail plan from KCATA and HNTB. The Heart of America and ASB bridges are out of the picture. We're guessing that will make Grand Avenue the south shore landing point and Swift Avenue in North Kansas City the north shore landing point.
  • Bike racks have been installed along 12th Street as part of the downtown streetscape improvements in that corridor. If you've got more than a few blocks to walk to the bus stop near your home, remember that every city bus has a fold-down bike rack on the front. Instructions and pics are here. Word has it that bike racks are also coming soon to the Power & Light District as a last-minute addition. City bike parking rules are here.
  • Charlotte's new light rail line is attracting solid numbers now that fares are being collected. The next light rail newbie, Phoenix, has started testing their new line — which is on-time and on-budget; it's due to open in December 2008. New Haven is seriously talking streetcars, and there is chatter that Savannah will be launching a streetcar circulator next year. In the bad news column, St. Louis Metro lost its lawsuit against the contractors who built the "Cross County" light rail extension to Clayton.
  • Expanding Amtrak service to Oklahoma is the topic this Saturday as the Northern Flyer Alliance holds a public meeting at Union Station to build grassroots support for plugging a big hole in Amtrak's national network. Only 200 rail miles separates Newton, Kansas, from Oklahoma City, and Wichita (the largest city in Kansas) is not currently served.
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More One KC Transit Meetings

MARC has scheduled more One KC Transit meetings through this month and next, including one this week in Independence and next week in Gladstone:

6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 25
Puppetry Arts Institute
11025 E. Winner Road [map] [#24]

6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 30
Gladstone City Hall
7010 N. Holmes St. [map]

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One KC Transit Meetings

Lee's Summit, Roeland Park, downtown and midtown KCMO are all hosting One KC Transit meetings this week. These are the last sessions to be held. Here's the rundown:

7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 15
Lee's Summit City Hall
220 S.E. Green Street [map]

6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 16
KCMO Central Library
14 W. 10th Street [map]

6 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 17
Roeland Park City Hall
4600 W. 51st Street [map]

11:30 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 18
MainCor
3215 Main Street, Suite 200 [map]

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Reminder: State Avenue meeting this Tuesday

Just a quick reminder that the State Avenue Corridor meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the Reardon Center [map] in downtown KCK. Routes #101 and #106 provide evening service from the 10th and Main Transit Center (one block northwest of the 11th/12th and Main MAX stops) to the front door of the Reardon Center.

In addition, two additional MARC meetings to discuss SmartMoves will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, this week:

3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 10
Southtown Council
4875 Troost Ave. [map] [#25, #47]

5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 11
Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council
3700 Woodland [map] [#35, #39, #53]

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One KC Transit & State Avenue Meetings

Another round of MARC's "One KC" citizen engagement meetings focused on transit will be held this week. Users and non-users of transit are welcome.

6:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 1
Central Resource Library
9875 W. 87th St. [map]
Overland Park, KS

6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 2
Blue Valley Library
9000 W. 151st St. [map]
Overland Park, KS

6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 4
Olathe Library
201 E. Park St. [map]
Olathe, KS

Yet another round will take place next week on the Missouri side (see the full schedule for details). Also of note next week, the first public meeting surrounding transit improvements in the State Avenue corridor in KCK:

5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 9
Reardon Center
520 Minnesota [map]
Kansas City, KS

Expect talk to lean towards a BRT implementation along the existing #114 bus route, but hopefully extended to downtown KCMO and beyond to boost ridership from outside of KCK's boundaries (like the SmartMoves yellow line).

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One KC Transit Meetings

MARC and the region's transit agencies are hosting a series of public forums with the intent of updating Smart Moves based on the light rail vote. The meeting schedule is here. Tonight's meeting is at the Shawnee Public Library, 13811 Johnson Drive. We appreciate MARC's nod to actually using public transportation to get to a meeting about the very subject.

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