KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers local government in Kansas and Missouri. He has been a member of the On Track with KC team since March. Share your story idea with Charlie.
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The Kansas City Streetcar’s Main Street Extension doesn’t officially open to the public until Oct. 24, but I was part of a select group of media members invited to ride the 3.5-mile route Wednesday.
I put on an orange safety vest and boarded the streetcar at Union Station, its current southern terminus.
Director of Operations and Planning Lauren Krutty gave us a 60-second warning, and then the streetcar took off up the hill next to the World War I Museum and Memorial.
With the southern extension, the route will now terminate at 51st Street and Brookside Boulevard near the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
One of the first things I noticed on the ride was how fast the streetcar was moving. There is more distance between stops, so the streetcar gains more speed compared to going through downtown.
There are also lanes dedicated to the streetcar. Honestly, I expected drivers to block the streetcar’s path on those lanes, but that was not the case.
Jason Waldron, Kansas City’s director of transportation, said car drivers have learned quickly how to share the road with the streetcar during testing over the past several months.
“They (drivers) have adapted to a different culture of driving better than we thought they would,” Waldron said.
Riders will also notice larger stops. The platforms at UMKC and the Plaza stood out to me.
There were a lot of smiles on the media ride. When I chatted with Deona Hustle, of Hot 103 Jamz’s Hustle & Shyne in the Morning, she told me it was her first time ever riding the KC Streetcar.
“I’m ashamed to say it, but it is,” Deona admitted. “Thus far, I’ve enjoyed it. It’s not too fast, and it’s not too slow.”
Tom Gerend, the KC Streetcar Authority’s executive director, said the hard part is over. The construction is finished, and crews are working on tying up loose ends before opening next week.
“It really is a dream come true for people who’ve been working on this — for 10 years in many cases — to see that line on a map become real,” Gerend said.
I think people will enjoy their first ride on the extension as much as KSHB 41's On Track with KC team did.
The $350 million project is coming in on time and under budget. A public opening ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at the Plaza stop.
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