KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Officials are looking into whether or not it is feasible to take the KC Streetcar north across the Missouri River and into North Kansas City.
A study is being conducted by the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, city of North Kansas City and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation and the city of Kansas City, Missouri.
Those involved estimate the study — dubbed the NorthRail Streetcar Study — could be complete by the end of 2022 and it will cost $180,000 to carry out.
A consultant team will look at where the streetcar could cross the river, potential stop locations, costs, funding and community involvement.
Right now, the Heart of America Bridge is a focus for a potential river crossing.
"I think that would be incredible," Bryce Schaffter of Cinder Block Brewery told KSHB 41 News. "Frankly, I think that’d be a game changer for most of the businesses that are here right now, but I also think that would drive a lot more new businesses to be here."
He pointed to other businesses, apartment complexes and other development in North Kansas City since Cinder Block moved to the area in 2013.
"I don’t think that anybody had much want to come up to North Kansas City to find a lot at that point in time and now we’re just surrounded by new businesses," he said.
Currently, the streetcar route is being extended north from the River Market to the Berkley Riverfront and south from Union Station to the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Those expansions are funded in part by federal grants.
