KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The public will have three chances to weigh in on the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority’s East-West Transit Study early next month.
The KCATA and KC Streetcar Authority, along with project partners, announced Monday that it will conduct two in-person public meetings and one virtual meeting to allow community input on route recommendations for the planned “high-capacity transit connection” that eventually will link the area around the University of Kansas Health System campus with the Rock Island Corridor/Truman Sports Complex.
The first meeting will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at Drexel Hall, 3301 Baltimore Ave. in Kansas City, Missouri.
The second meeting is set for 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 6, at the Linwood YMCA/James B. Nutter Sr. Community Center, 3800 Linwood Blvd. in KCMO.
The virtual public meeting is slated for noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11.
Those interested in participating should register at EastWestTransit.org to receive the link.
“As U.S. Congress considers additional funding for national public infrastructure and transit, it is incredibly important that Kansas City position itself to compete for federal funding,” the KC Streetcar Authority said in a statement. “Developing plans and local consensus on regional project priorities is essential to this process.”
RideKC launched the study — which could have major implications on how people move around the city during the 2026 FIFA World Cup — last spring, and it's expected to take a year to complete.
The current KC Streetcar configuration eventually will connect the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus/Country Club Plaza to the south to the River Market area north of downtown.
The proposed east-west spine would run from Rainbow Boulevard east to the Truman Sports Complex, which houses GEHA Field at Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums.
The planned route, which would connect with the KC Streetcar Main Street Extension and the RideKC Max Bus Rapid Transit routes, would be somewhere between 31st Street to the north and 43rd Street to the south.
"Consideration will be given to areas outside of the study area with regards to opportunities for longer-term investments or phases of the identified high-capacity transit corridor,” according to a release from the KC Streetcar Authority.
The meetings will include an interactive map that also will allow residents “to provide feedback, weigh in on preferred screening criteria, and influence alignment options,” according to organizers, who said the same information will be presented at all three meetings.
The University of Kansas Hospital Authority, along with KCMO’s municipal government and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, also have partnered on the project.
—