Streetcar’s arrival kicks off next crucial phase of valuable project
Kansas City’s first new streetcar in generations rolled into town this week, marking another important milestone for the downtown, two-mile starter line.
Getting the system up and running in early 2016 — providing another substantial boost to a revived urban core — is remarkably within reach.
Plenty of testing for the streetcars, the track, the electrified overhead lines and other parts of the starter line remains. That will take months, for good reasons: Supporters need to provide solid service to the thousands of people expected to use the new system every day once it’s operating.
The arrival of the streetcar came just a day after the Royals won the 2015 World Series and a day before hundreds of thousands of fans streamed downtown for a community-inspiring victory parade. After seeing these huge and unusual throngs of people, more than one booster pointed out that a fully functional streetcar line could have been one more way to transport some fans between the River Market area and Union Station — with 150 passengers in each car — the next time the Royals take the crown. How about ... next year?
As it is, skeptics are running out of arguments about why a streetcar line won’t work in Kansas City.
No one has argued it’s the answer to all of this city’s and region’s problems with lackluster public transit. And no one should claim the streetcar project is solely responsible for the surge in downtown redevelopment, especially in the housing and hotel markets.
However, the entire project is still close to its original $100 million budget; it has not become the financial black hole that some warned about.
The disruptive and — to some merchants, costly — tearing up of streets to put in rail lines and to replace water and service lines is about over. Downtown residents and businesses will benefit from modern utility services as well as some freshly poured sidewalks and repaved roads.
The addition of a streetcar line that can connect to popular bus routes will help move people more smoothly around the core.
And as for development dollars, hundreds of millions of them are being spent on projects that will benefit from the streetcar system, putting people closer to where they live, work or shop.
Meanwhile, the education campaign must continue in a city that last saw an operating streetcar system in the late 1950s.
When parking along a curb, for example, motorists must be careful to avoid getting too close to the streetcar rails or risk being towed. Developers, business owners and others who do work along the streetcar route will have to be alert to the electrified overhead and underground wires that will power the large vehicles.
Mayor Sly James and others hope the starter line leads to bigger things, such as an extension toward the Country Club Plaza. That will have a better chance of happening, of course, if all those working on the streetcar system deliver an effective and fully functioning public transit project in early 2016.
This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Streetcar’s arrival kicks off next crucial phase of valuable project."