Kansas City bus riders will see a temporary boost in service during the World Cup. But by the end of summer, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority will cut more than one-fourth of its weekday routes.
The KCATA approved its 2026-27 contract with the city of Kansas City, Missouri, at a special board meeting Thursday. The contract provides more than $85 million for the transportation agency, which is a funding increase from recent years and includes $1.8 million for the city’s rideshare service, IRIS. But with a nationwide trend of higher transportation costs and a lack of regional funding, officials said that’s not enough to prevent cuts.
These cuts will bring the KCATA to the fewest bus routes it’s had in decades. Tyler Means, chief mobility and strategy officer, said the agency worked to cut duplicate routes first, and then those that had lower ridership.
“We don't want to have to make these kinds of cuts,” Means said. “There's absolutely no fat (to trim). I would say that we are cutting into good meat on this one, in fact. Kansas City is such a hard city to service with good transit. It is massive. It requires making very hard decisions with every cut we make.”
Starting Sept. 6, the KCATA will cut seven weekday routes and make four weekday routes slower. It will also cut two weekend routes. Those weekend cuts will allow for more frequency on the Troost Max line.
The service cuts were lessened from what the KCATA was prepared for at the start of Kansas City’s budget season. In March, the transportation authority told the Kansas City Council that it would cut nearly one-third of its weekday routes and nearly all of its weekend routes due to a lack of funding from the city.
The city council had originally proposed giving the KCATA about $77.8 million in its 2026-27 budget. After learning of the possible cuts, the council amended the city budget to give more than $85 million to the bus agency.
The additional funding saved one weekday route, 75, from being cut. It also saved most of Kansas City’s weekend bus service.
Still, the cuts will mark a drastic loss of service for the city. The service cuts could also lead to longer wait times. These changes would be on top of the cuts KCATA made in February due to funding deficits that eliminated two routes and changed the hours on 14 others.
At a May 5 city council committee meeting, council members discussed the cuts with the agency. Council member Melissa Robinson continued to advocate for the city to direct online sales tax money to the funds they would normally be reserved for. Right now, money collected from online sales goes into the city’s general fund. She noted that doing so would effectively fill the KCATA’s budget deficit and prevent future cuts.
Robinson said she wants the city to invest more in public transit, especially in economically disadvantaged parts of the city.
“We talk about economic development, we talk about workforce development, we talk about these large capital projects that we're investing in,” Robinson said. “Those individuals who have the least access to opportunity are the ones who are bearing the brunt of these cuts. It does have an impact on people, going to work, going to school, which has a direct impact on crime and violence in our city.”
Nic Miller is president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1287, the union that represents KCATA’s bus drivers. He said the constant cuts and back-and-forth between budget cuts and additional money for the agency feels like the city and the KCATA are “playing with their (drivers’) emotions” and those of riders.
“It's not uncommon for operators' routes to change and be taken off a route or something like that,” Miller said. “But when the times of the routes start changing, and you start taking these routes away, now that's affecting the public. So a route that normally only took me an hour to get to work, now may take me an hour and a half to get to work. Not everyone has that flexibility.”
The KCATA said it does not believe any bus driver jobs will be at stake for these cuts, because the agency has not replaced drivers who have left. Miller said many of those drivers left during the last round of cuts, either because they were laid off or because they quit while waiting to see if their job would be eliminated. Still, Miller expects 60 union jobs to be cut when these changes take effect.
Route cuts start Sept. 6
The weekday service cuts are:
- 9, Ninth Street
- 21, Cleveland Antioch
- 23, 23rd Street
- 25, Troost Local
- 27, 27th Street
- 57, Wornall
- 71, Prospect Local
The 12, 18, 31 and 35 routes will have service hour changes starting Sept. 6. The 12, 18 and 35 will have 60-minute headways. The 31, one of the city’s most frequent routes, will go from 15-minute to 30-minute headways.
The weekend service cuts are:
- 12, 12th Street
- 210, Front Street
The KCATA will also add more buses to the Troost Max line, which the agency is calling the “Troost Boost.” The changes, made possible by the weekend service cuts, will make the Troost Max line come every 18 minutes.
Expanded service during the World Cup
The KCATA will add bus service in June and July to support increased demand. Improving the service and delaying the cuts until after the tournament will cost nearly $7.5 million. That funding comes from federal World Cup funds, diverted capital funding from the Prospect MAX line and grants the KCATA repurposed.
Routes with expanded hours (will run until 2 a.m.):
- 12, 12th Street
- 24, Independence
- 31, 31st Street
- 39, 39th Street
- 47, Martin Luther King Jr.
- 63, 63rd Street
- 201, North Oak
Routes with increased frequency:
- 12, 12th Street
- 39, 39th Street
- 47, Martin Luther King Jr.
- 63, 63rd Street
- 201, North Oak
Means said he doesn’t think further service cuts will be necessary in the years to come. After talks with city officials, the KCATA believes funding from the city will remain stable.
Right now, Kansas City provides the bulk of the funding for the KCATA. The agency seeks more regional funding from the counties within its service area.
“If that was to happen and money was to flow back to this, then we can start focusing on building back service and bringing new stuff back and adding services to where they need to go, and getting some really good, fast and frequent service,” Means said.
Miller said securing regional funding is another focus of the union. He wants more people to get involved and demand more funding from their local government.
“I want the community to come together, because our voices are going to be the impact on things,” Miller said. “Everyone has to let the city know how impactful this will be to them. When we all come together as a community and everyone starts making their voices heard, that's when you start getting action.”
