World Cup shuttle between KCI and Johnson County launches. Will it be permanent?
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- Johnson County launched a free KCI–Lenexa–Overland Park shuttle on June 1.
- The shuttle runs every 30 minutes through July 17 and every 60 minutes afterward.
- County officials will collect ridership and survey data and report findings in early 2027.
For the last 12 years, Howell Scott has used his own vehicle and gas money to serve as a volunteer shuttle transporting visitors between a Johnson County hotel and Kansas City International Airport. That’s more than 16 hours worth of driving the hour and half round trip — all during one weekend in June for USA Dance’s Kansas City Dance Classic.
But this year was different.
Scott was able to utilize the new Johnson County United Airport Drop and Ride shuttle service, which began June 1 as part of Johnson County’s FIFA World Cup plans. The addition of the new temporary route turned Scott’s normal eight airport trips into one.
“If you’re going to the airport, you got to have somebody drive you from Johnson County. That’s a two-hour round trip, so you just have somebody drop you off at the convention center or drop you off at the Lenexa Center, and they can go on about their business, like go back to work,” Scott said. “It saves the person who’s getting there a lot of time, and it also saves the person traveling a lot of money.”
Though marketed for FIFA World Cup visitors, locals can enjoy more convenient airport trips using the Lenexa City Center and Overland Park Convention Center pick-up and drop-off points.
“I think the World Cup is an opportunity to do some really intentional and innovative experimenting,” said Erin Winn, the chief of staff for Johnson County chairman Mike Kelly. “(There’s an opportunity to) leverage the international visitors that are coming into our community to… really benefit everybody who either lives here or comes here to play and visit.”
The Lenexa shuttle stop is at the intersection of Scarborough Street and 87th Street. The Overland Park stop is along I-453 on the north side of the convention center. To ride from the airport, the shuttle stops at the public transit pickup area near signpost 3A.
The free shuttle routes run on 30-minute intervals through July 17. After July 17, they will run on 60-minute intervals.
Funding for the project came from a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program grant, Winn said. The funds are designed to “invest in projects that reduce criteria air pollutants from transportation-related sources,” Johnson County Transit Director Justus Welker said. The service will run as long as the grant money lasts.
“The reason that we’re uncertain right now is like everybody else in the country, the cost of diesel and gas, we didn’t anticipate being so high,” Winn said.
Though temporary, Winn says the service will act as a pilot for potentially instating it permanently. Locals have already taken to social media platforms like Reddit to discuss benefits of a permanent route, like convenience and cost efficiency. One user points out that the shuttle may actually be more helpful for residents, as visitors still need a car once dropped at one of the stops.
Scott finds one benefit to be the guarantee of a predictable schedule, as opposed to potentially finicky and expensive Ubers or other local transportation.
When one competitor asked Scott about whether the shuttle was safe, he said absolutely — citing the professional and neatly-dressed drivers, the nature of a shuttle running to an “affluent” county and a brand new luxury coach.
Johnson County is working with an outside agency to collect ridership data, demographic data and survey responses along with conducting a peer analysis in order to present a case for making the shuttle permanent.
Winn said they hope to provide a report to county commissioners in early 2027, including community feedback and what a permanent shuttle service might cost. The county, Winn said, is “being really intentional with collecting the data, so that our policymakers can make an informed decision.”
The free shuttle uses two charter buses, one seating 35 and one seating 50. The routes can be seen on the Johnson County website.
There is no designated parking lot at Kansas City International Airport for this shuttle, and riders should not leave their personal vehicles at the Lenexa and Overland Park shuttle stops.
Scott prefers the 30-minute intervals for his dance competition purposes to the 60-minute intervals starting mid-July. The first day of drop-offs, the route got off-schedule. After that, Scott said it arrived every 30 minutes “on the dot” or 5 minutes early and he only positive feedback for the shuttle’s first week.
“We were the primary users of that shuttle over this weekend… there were only maybe one or two, maybe three other people that weren’t involved with our event,” Scott said. “Had (there been) other things going on at that time… this could be really useful to them.”
