How good is Kansas City’s regional World Cup bus service? We rode it to find out
FIFA World Cup’s reach spreads far and wide with ConnectKC26’s Region Direct shuttle, the official tournament line meant for both Kansas Citians and World Cup visitors to experience the area’s food, entertainment and shopping.
Kansas City Star reporters Emily Harter and Sophie Lindberg rode the Region Direct bus routes to Lawrence, Oak Park Mall and Independence Center, speaking with eager World Cup visitors about the bus schedule, riding experience and ease of access.
Where ConnectKC26 Region Direct runs to
Fifteen stops across the city can be explored from one central hub just two blocks over from FIFA Fan Fest in a parking lot sandwiched between Grand Boulevard and Warwick Trafficway:
- Boardwalk Square: 8600 N. Boardwalk Ave.
- Independence Center: 18801 E. 39th St., Independence
- Independence Square: 13910 E. Truman Road, Independence
- KC Zoo and Starlight Theatre: 6800 Zoo Drive
- Lawrence: 2315 Bob Billings Parkway, Lawrence
- Lee’s Summit: 206 SW Market St., Lee’s Summit
- The Legends: 10824 Parallel Parkway SPC 700, Kansas City, Kansas
- Lenexa City Center: 8700 Scarborough St., Lenexa
- Liberty: 1915 College St., Liberty
- Mission Transit Center: 5251 Johnson Drive, Mission
- North Kansas City: 520 E. 19th St., North Kansas City
- Oak Park Mall: 11855 W. 95th St., Overland Park
- Overland Park Convention Center: 6000 College Blvd., Overland Park
- Worlds of Fun: 4545 NE Worlds of Fun Drive
- 3-Trails Transit Center: 9449 Blue Ridge Blvd.
There’s one bus dedicated to each destination, running back and forth from its stop and the ConnectKC26 bus mall.
When the shuttle runs and how much it costs
The service is available Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to midnight, and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Hours will be extended when needed to accommodate Fan Fest hours.
A Region Direct day pass costs $5, a seven-day pass costs $25, and an all tournament pass good through July 13 costs $50. For easy access, the passes can be added to mobile phone wallets via the confirmation email received after purchase.
While we paid for a day pass, they weren’t checked when getting on or off the bus on any of our three trips. World Cup traveler Aslan Salah said he and his family also never had their passes checked.
“The driver didn’t see the passes, so I don’t know if it’s free or if I paid for nothing. … It’s very confusing,” Salah said.
How easy the buses are to use and find
It’s hard to miss the numerous buses at 2644 Warwick Trafficway. The buses go to 15 destinations from Fan Fest every 20 minutes, or every 30 for the Lawrence line.
Once locating the lot, we easily found our buses using the big signs with destination names posted along the north and south sides of the parking lot. In front of each sign is a gated waiting area for passengers to line up. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any seating nearby for waiting passengers.
Between us and Algeria fans we spoke with at the hub, we were surprised to see that the Lawrence drop-off location was Lawrence Transit Central Station. We had expected a more central location like somewhere in downtown Lawrence — it seems Algeria fan Youssef Boutchicha agreed, announcing to friends that “there’s nothing over here” when the bus pulled up to the station located almost 3 miles from the center of town. The group had made the trip from KC to scout out the Algerian national team practicing at Rock Chalk Park.
The station serves as a hub for Lawrence public transportation, so ConnectKC26 passengers can take the fare-free fixed routes across town as they please. There’s no long-term parking at the station.
Overall, passengers we spoke with thought the Region Direct buses were easy to navigate and understand. Reda Hellel, a World Cup traveler hailing from Algeria, said it was much easier to navigate than ConnectKC26’s airport express service.
“It was a little bit hard to find the spot where you take the bus. There was no sign at the airport,” Hellel said.
He didn’t have any trouble with the Region Direct buses, and had a comfortable airport express ride once he found the pickup location.
How often the bus runs, and how efficiently
The buses each follow a schedule of their own — our Lawrence bus driver said his takeoff back to ConnectKC26 bus mall was precisely 11:56.
Using the Transit app or the embed on Kansas City’s FIFA World Cup website, riders can keep track of their buses by plugging in their starting and ending locations. A few buses are used for each Region Direct stop in order to sustain the 20-minute schedule.
Unlike our trips, Salah has had bad luck with the bus schedule.
“Today, we went to the KC Zoo. The bus was on time, but when we (got back to Fan Fest), we waited one hour,” Salah said about the Oak Park Mall line. He and his family chose a hotel near Oak Park Mall instead of downtown to save money. For that purpose, he finds the ConnectKC26 bus system to be very helpful.
It takes about 50 minutes to get to Lawrence, 27 to get to Independence Center and 30 to get to Oak Park Mall.
Depending on when you arrive at the ConnectKC26 hub, you may have to wait for your bus to arrive, which we noticed could be brutal in the summer heat.
“We (waited for) 30 minutes for the bus to come, and it is very sunny, so we had to move to under the tree,” said an Algerian World Cup visitor getting off the Lawrence line. He suggested adding more umbrellas in bus mall lines.
Comfort and convenience once onboard
Several kinds of motorcoach buses were contracted, but they all shared similar amenities. Like a plane, there’s overhead storage and adjustable lighting. The buses are a comfortable, cool temperature that saved us from the cloudless heat even with our individual overhead vents closed.
Boutchicha said that the workers coordinating the buses and the drivers are very polite, and found the bus “very comfortable,” calling the experience “amazing.”
Cupholders, fold-down footrests and outlets are accessible in every seat. A lounger at heart, Sophie was excited to find that the seats recline a little bit using the lever on each seat’s exposed side.
TV screens come down from the ceiling every few rows, but on our first two trips, they weren’t playing anything. But we got to watch “Jumanji” on our trip to Oak Park Mall.
Unlike the TVs, bathrooms at the back of each bus are not in service on any route.
Between zero and seven passengers were on each of our trips Monday, leaving the 53-seat buses near empty. A ConnectKC26 worker said she expects numbers to boom with the first game Tuesday. Salah notices the empty buses too, saying that “it’s a waste of money of the citizens of Kansas City” to have the buses running on a day when Fan Fest is closed.
If riders leave anything on the shuttle, they can ask any worker in an orange vest for help.
