After more than three years of construction, the KC Streetcar extension on Main Street will open in one month. The long-awaited extension will stretch the streetcar from its current southern terminus at Union Station to 51st Street and Brookside Boulevard near the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Starting Oct. 24, people will be able to ride the streetcar from the River Market to the Plaza along Main Street. Rides will begin after an opening ceremony that morning, Donna Mandelbaum, director of communications for the KC Streetcar Authority, said.
“We’re ready to open up this extension for passenger service,” Mandelbaum said. “We're very excited, and we hope that Kansas City is just as excited as us.”
Mandelbaum said the authority is adding new cars to the line to ensure frequencies stay at every 10-12 minutes, hiring more staff and expanding its hours of service. The streetcar will now run from 5 a.m. to midnight Mondays-Thursdays, 5-1 a.m. on Fridays, 7-1 a.m. on Saturdays and 7 a.m. to midnight on Sundays.
The extra hour of service on weekdays is meant to account for an increase of commuters. According to KC Streetcar’s 2023 Rider Satisfaction Survey, about 31% of weekday riders used the transit for employment-related trips. Mandelbaum said the authority expects those numbers to increase now that the streetcar reaches employment centers like the Plaza and UMKC.
In a statement, Mayor Quinton Lucas said the streetcar has provided millions of trips since it first began running in 2016.
“The Main Street Extension builds on that success by connecting our neighborhoods from the River Market to the Plaza and UMKC, opening up new opportunities for our neighbors and visitors throughout our community,” Lucas said.
We are ready to roll with the expanded @kcstreetcar October 24, 2025! pic.twitter.com/65uAo9pwrW
— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) September 24, 2025
Celebrating the extension
Multiple celebrations are planned to celebrate the opening of the Main Street extension.
An opening ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at the Plaza streetcar stop and will include remarks from elected officials and community leaders. Riders can use the streetcar from any stop along the route beginning after the ceremony.
A community celebration will run from 5-9 p.m. that day at the UMKC streetcar stop and will include food, live music and a drone show.
A second community celebration will take place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at Murray Davis Park along the streetcar route. The family-friendly fall festival will include drill teams and bands, face painting and music.
Restaurants and businesses along the entire route are also planning special offers and activities for riders to commemorate the extension. Each of the celebrations will be free to attend and open to the public. Mandelbaum said the Streetcar Authority is still encouraging more businesses to participate.
“The Kansas City streetcar likes to do things big,” Mandelbaum said. “We don't just do anything halfway. We want to pull people into the community and make sure they visit these businesses that are along our route. Go have some lunch, maybe go to the movies, check out an art museum, all these great things that are all now within walking and streetcar distance of this new route.”
Transit-only lanes
The extension will also change how drivers will be able to use Main Street. Transit-only lanes, which are meant to make public transportation more efficient, will run along Main Street from Pershing Road near Union Station to 51st Street.
Drivers can access some parts of that stretch for street parking or turning between Pershing Road and Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard. Other stretches, like Cleaver to 51st Street at the southern end of the line, and southbound Main Street from Pershing to 27th Street, are exclusively for public transit use.
The transit-only lanes can be identified by red paint in the lanes, curbs, white and red lane lines, and signage along the route.
The streetcar will run with normal traffic between the River Market and Union Station, but drivers could be ticketed and towed if they block the tracks.
The Kansas City Council passed an ordinance in April of this year that will impose a $50 fine on drivers who operate or park their vehicle in a transit-only lane — except for turning or accessing a building, parking space or alley.
Other extensions in the works
The new extension has brought a lot of development, and construction woes, to the Main Street corridor. A slew of lofts and historic renovations have been launched in midtown along the new streetcar line. Kansas City is also in the process of choosing a project to redevelop the Plaza tennis courts. It plans to replace the courts near a new streetcar stop with a development that includes housing, retail and public space.
Construction began on the extended lines in the spring of 2022, but it’s been in the works much longer. Planning for the extension began in 2017, and work started on the underground utilities in 2020.
The 3.5 miles of new tracks cost $352 million to complete and were paid for with a combination of federal and local funding.
The Main Street extension is not the only project along the streetcar route. Officials promise the 0.7-mile extension north from the River Market to the Berkley Riverfront Park will be open by early next year. Mandelbaum said progress is 92% done on those tracks.
That line will be open by Kansas City’s World Cup games in summer 2026 and in time for the KC Current’s third season at its riverfront CPKC stadium.
Officials are also studying multiple possible future extensions. The Streetcar Authority, along with Kansas City and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, just launched a study into an east-west line to the 18th and Vine district.
Another study has been in the works since 2023 for an east-west line along 39th Street and Linwood Boulevard that would take riders from the University of Kansas Health System to Van Brunt Boulevard.
Officials are also studying an extension further north over the Missouri River and into North Kansas City. That study is being done by the city of North Kansas City, the Streetcar Authority and the KCATA.
Mandelbaum said all three studies are still active, but it will take a long time before riders actually see tracks in the ground. It took eight years for the Main Street extension to go from a study to its grand opening next month. But the popularity of the new extension could help the other projects move along.
“We appreciated everybody's patience (with the extension),” Mandelbaum said. “We are just very excited to get the streetcars rolling with passengers on board, and I know that Midtown is just as excited.”
