Kansas City has been working full throttle to prepare for the FIFA World Cup, which is less than two months away. KC2026, the group behind preparations for the games, has organized a transit plan with more bus routes, shuttle services and extended streetcar access for easier movement within the city.
Greg Bolon is the Kansas City district engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation. Bolon said there is no precedent for hosting such a large global event in the area, making the transit preparation even more difficult.
“This is more like, I always like to say the Olympics on steroids, because you've got such a long time span you don't know what's going to happen throughout the whole deal,” Bolon said.
With all of the uncertainty, Bolon said the event will look different than other high-traffic events like a Kansas City Chiefs game or Taylor Swift concert.
“People go home to watch the game, they go out to a bar, or they go to the game themselves. Here we're going to be throwing traffic on top of our normal traffic, so it just adds to the congestion,” Bolon said.
But the question of how people will get around for the World Cup games hosted in Missouri goes beyond just Kansas City. The entire state is preparing for an influx of traffic this summer, and officials don’t know exactly what to expect.
Looking for ways to travel
Kansas City International Airport is expecting June and July to be its busiest months on record as hundreds of thousands will arrive for the matches and events.
But St. Louis Lambert International Airport has more airlines providing flights and generally cheaper prices, attracting many travelers to trek across the state.
Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge is the director of St. Louis Lambert International Airport. She said the summer is usually a busy time for locals to travel, but there’s been a shift this year that she attributes to the games.
“What we're seeing clearly is that in the months surrounding the FIFA cup, we've got a lot of bookings coming out of Europe to the U.S., so it's nice to see that that balance is being more equally shifted right now, versus one-sided,” Hamm-Niebruegge said.
Airlines have also made changes for the expected traffic, as Lufthansa will now offer five non-stop flights to Frankfurt, Germany, from June to October as opposed to its usual three. British Airways will launch its first non-stop flights to London from St. Louis in May.
The airport is also preparing for increased international tourism with additional signage, announcements in multiple languages and on-site translators.
Hamm-Niebruegge said the airport is constantly looking to connect with more international airlines. Airline trends for the World Cup have shown promising results so far with bookings, which is a good first step to show European markets “the value of St. Louis.” But, she said it takes years to create those connections.
“It's a lot of patience, it's a lot of fact finding. It's a lot of building relationships. It's partnering with the business community so that they see that there is going to be support for the flight,” Hamm-Niebruegge said. “Once it starts, [it’s hopefully] seeing the bookings come in strong, and that's what we're seeing right now.”
From the St. Louis airport, visitors will need to find a way across the state. Some might take a direct flight from St. Louis to Kansas City or drive 230 miles west on Interstate 70. Others may get on a bus or book a ride on the Amtrak Missouri River Runner, a passenger train service that runs between St. Louis to Kansas City twice a day.
The train began running an extra round trip daily in preparation for increased visitors in April, a $1.7 million investment. Despite the added trip, Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari said certain days are likely to start selling out.
“There's probably no way we could ever have enough trains and rail cars to meet that demand. This is going to be a high demand period, during a high demand period, so that's why people should book right now,” Magliari said.
Many visitors may end up traveling by car, most likely via I-70. But the interstate is in the midst of the Improve I-70 project, which involves various construction projects along the route to widen the interstate.
Bolon said officials will purposefully prevent lane restrictions on certain sections of I-70 during the period surrounding the World Cup matches, like the route between Manchester Avenue and The Paseo Boulevard in Kansas City. But he said delays may happen if accidents occur in the work zones. MoDOT is increasing training for emergency response operators and has partial staffing to respond to emergencies.
Apart from planes, trains and automobiles, some people are finding even more ways to travel for the games. Bolon said he’s received calls from several countries with unique travel questions for the summer.
“We've had calls from places far away as Norway wanting to know what it's like to bike from Sedalia to Kansas City,” he said.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Business Alert, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
