A Kansas City Streetcar Authority spokesperson says the group is aiming to open the new Riverfront extension in May.
The 0.7-mile extension will connect CPKC Stadium and the Berkley Riverfront with the rest of the downtown streetcar line, near River Market. The new route has been under construction for two years.
Streetcar spokesperson Donna Mandelbaum says crews are currently confirming that streetcars can operate safely on the new route.
“We’ve just completed tests that required us to bring a streetcar down the riverfront,” Mandelbaum says. “We’re testing overhead wires, testing the substations that power streetcar systems and doing clearance checks.”
Streetcar drivers will begin training on the new tracks in April. Because of that, some northbound trains will drop passengers at the River Market North stop before continuing on to the Riverfront without members of the public.
“We'll do things like simulating the boarding of the passengers at the new Riverfront stop and the new River Market Center platform stop,” Mandelbaum says. “We will test multimodal accommodations like bicyclists, wheelchairs, that sort of thing.”
Ridership on the streetcar has surged since the Main Street extension opened last fall, Mandelbaum says. She expects the new line will bring in even more riders.
“We have a daily average ridership right now of 8,829 passenger trips, and we've already completed more than half a million trips in 2026,” Mandelbaum says.
The Kansas City Streetcar’s 3 ½-mile Main Street extension, which stretches from Union Station to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, opened in October. That extension had been under construction since April 2022, and the much anticipated grand opening was met with a weekend of community celebrations.
Once the new Riverfront extension opens, riders will be able to take KC Streetcar 6 ½ miles from East Riverfront Drive and Berkley Plaza to 51st Street and Brookside Boulevard.
The city’s other Riverfront projects, including a new $5 million CPKC Pavilion, and a pedestrian and bicycle bridge, are expected to be completed at the same time, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Streetcar Executive Director Tom Gerend told KCUR last year that the first tests in mid-December went well.
“We always are committed to doing this the right way,” Gerend said. “The team has made great progress ahead of schedule, but we want to make sure that we do the work that’s necessary to open it right.”
Gerend said, like the Main Street extension was, the testing process is federally regulated. He said drivers around the streetcar line may experience minor traffic delays over the next few months, with the possibility of the closure of Grand Boulevard between 3rd Street and the Riverfront.
