It’s here! The Kansas City Streetcar’s new Main Street extension is now open, and riders can hop on at any stop along the 5.7-mile route, which stretches from the River Market to the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The 3.5-mile extension connects Union Station, previously the southern terminus, to UMKC. There are several new stops along the way, including at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, Union Hill, Westport, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the nearby Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Country Club Plaza.
"We're connecting the two largest employment centers in downtown, in the Plaza, through the densest residential neighborhoods in the city,” Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, told KCUR’s Up To Date.
“And so that connectivity, that opportunity that people have to be able to go from home to work on Main Street, and really reinforcing that as a viable option for people, is something we're really excited about."
The extension opened Friday morning with much fanfare, including a variety of food, live entertainment and a drone show scheduled for the evening near the UMKC stop.
Saturday’s Midtown Fall Fest also will celebrate the streetcar.
The streetcar is free to ride. With frequencies every 10 -18 minutes, it runs from 5 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays and from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
The extension also brings new transit-only lanes to much of Main Street from Pershing Road to 51st Street. The lanes are largely designated for the streetcar, with minimal access for vehicles in some places.
The extension had been under construction since April 2022. It cost $352 million to complete and was paid for with a combination of federal and local funding.
A 0.7-mile extension north from the River Market to the Berkley Riverfront Park is projected to be open by early next year.
