From The Kansas City Star, By Jeffrey Spivak and Michael Mansur, October 27, 2007
Seeking a consensus for a workable light-rail plan
Too long or too short. This street or that street. A billion or millions.
For the past year, Kansas City has been tangled in a debate over what light-rail system to pursue. Voters approved an ambitious plan designed by Clay Chastain in November, but city leaders say that plan is unworkable and underfunded. Several groups are studying various options, and the city’s transportation agency is tasked with coming up with an alternative plan.
Most cities our size already have some form of rail transit. Nearly everyone agrees the time has come for light rail in Kansas City. So it’s no longer a question of if or when, but how?
To help focus that discussion, The Kansas City Star today offers readers one possible solution.
The newspaper spent four months studying light rail in other cities, meeting with local rail planners and interviewing about 100 community leaders, from business executives to politicians to future riders. The paper then pieced together a light-rail plan based on research, consensus — and the requirement that it can actually get built, and soon.
The result is on Pages A12-14. According to our collective community wish list, it’s a system that starts small, is locally affordable and can be expanded later.
In coming days, we’ll learn if any of these ideas make it into the city’s official plan. But what seems clear is that finally, after years of debate, light rail is on its way to Kansas City.
“It’s what dynamic cities do,” Crown Center President Bill Lucas says. “If we want Kansas City’s renaissance to achieve its potential, this is a fairly significant piece of the puzzle.”
Next week: Someday we’ll have a regional light-rail route, and here’s how it might connect to a starter route.
Key features
- A short starter route that’s just 9.75 miles, extending from the Northland to the Country Club Plaza, with a branch east along Linwood Boulevard.
- All-local funding that will allow the city to get the starter line going soon rather than waiting years for federal funding that may never materialize.
- New light-rail technology called the “modern streetcar” that is lighter and less costly than traditional light rail.
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