KSHB 41 Traffic anchor/reporter Daniela Leon covers all sorts of transportation topics across Kansas City. Have a story idea to share or a question about something in your neighborhood? Send Daniela a news tip.
This week, new shelters have been popping up around Kansas City along the streetcar extension. The blue frames and overhead canopies signal a stop location along the extended route.
According to Streetcar crews the first station shelters for the KC Streetcar Main Street Extension arrived in midtown this week and the new Union Station Northbound Streetcar Stop at Pershing Road & Main Street was the first of eight platforms to receive a shelter.
In addition to the Union Station Northbound stop, the following streetcar stops will receive shelters over the next week and a half, weather dependent:
- WWI Museum & Memorial Northbound and Southbound at 27th and Main Streets
- Armour Southbound at Armour Road & Main Street
- Southmoreland Southbound at 43rd & Main Streets
- Art Museums Northbound and Southbound at 45th & Main Streets
The remaining standard-sized shelters will be installed in July and the larger extended center platform shelters, which are the Plaza Transit Center and UMKC stops, will be installed later this summer.
"We like to celebrate all sorts of milestones on this construction project," said Donna Mandelbaum, KC Streetcar spokesperson. "We are about 90% complete with all the track work on the ground, so that's very exciting, but this is a part of the construction that's above ground that is very visual where people can get excited, and they could feel that the end of construction is near.
KSHB-TV saw crews install shelters along 27th and Main right by the World War I Memorial as both the northbound and southbound stops were getting their new shelters. Mandelbaum says heavy construction along the streetcar extension will wrap up by the end of this year and people hopefully be able to ride on the new extension by 2025 and 2026.
"We're going to go from an average of 5,000 to 6,000 rides per day and triple that, we're going to go from three to four street cars on the road to eight to nine streetcars on the route because we always want to keep that 10 minute frequency and make sure we get to get to our stops in the most efficient way possible, so ridership is definitely going to expand," explained Mandelbaum.
The extension also includes ongoing construction near the Riverfront. Mandelbaum says crews have already started welding rail and in the next month or so they will start putting track down on the Riverfront.
Bark K was one of the first businesses to pop up by the Riverfront and staff is excited to see how ridership will impact their businesses.
"This was a vacant landscape and the vision all along with the Port Authority was to develop a vibrant community right on the riverfront in Kansas. City and we were excited to be part of the seed of that growth," said David Hensley Founder of Bark K.
The future stop along their Riverfront will place riders feet away from Bark K and will also give riders access to CPKC stadium.
"Yeah, I love to hear that will get additional eyes and people they'll be introduced to Bark K, I would love if we got dogs on the Streetcar that would be really cool, then people could have an additional way to get their dogs down here," said Hensley.
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