Area transit leaders are once again bracing for major cuts to bus service without additional funding from Kansas City.
The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority projects it needs more than $100 million from Kansas City to maintain its current routes and service levels, which already result in long wait times and the fewest routes the agency has had in years.
The city plans to allocate $77.8 million to the agency for bus service in its 2026-27 budget. That’s the same amount the city originally gave to the transit agency last year, but after accounting for inflation, the KCATA will receive about $2 million less than last year.
Without more funding, the KCATA told Kansas City’s Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee on Tuesday that it would need to cut eight of its 27 weekday routes in Kansas City, Missouri, and reduce the frequency of several others. Those cuts would affect more than 4,300 weekday riders, about 13.5% of the city’s total weekday ridership.
It would also cut 20 of its weekend routes, leaving only seven remaining. Those cuts would affect more than 46% of weekend riders.
Click here to see the full list of proposed route cuts below.
Chuck Ferguson, the interim CEO of the KCATA, said the agency is going to give more information to the city council in the coming days regarding the cuts and any alternative choices that may be available.
“The bottom line for me and for anybody here at the KCATA is this is an area that we are uncomfortable with, as far as route eliminations and route reductions,” Ferguson told KCUR. “That's not what we're in this business for. We are all community service-minded individuals, and having to reduce goes against our very DNA regarding transit providers.”
The route cuts and frequency changes could also lead to longer wait times and an estimated 97 union bus drivers losing their jobs, though the KCATA has said it’s working to reduce those job cuts. 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.
The agency faced similar service changes last year in response to rising transportation costs and stagnant city funding. That led to a monthslong budget crisis for the agency and an infusion of more than $9 million in additional funding in the latter half of last year to keep service levels relatively unchanged.
The transit agency’s service changes won’t go into effect until the city’s budget is finalized later this month. At the committee meeting, the KCATA recommended the city continue all service at its current level until August, after the World Cup. That would require nearly $3.5 million. But the cuts could come as soon as May.
Many of the committee members voiced concerns about the number of routes that could be cut and a desire to find funding solutions for the KCATA. Council member Eric Bunch, who also serves on the KCATA’s board of commissioners, said the city’s budget allocation for the transit agency is what necessitates the service cuts.
“These are decisions that we are making,” Bunch said. “We're not making the decision on what to cut, but we are the ones making the decision to cut.”
The transit agency provided the city council committee with a cost for each route it proposed to cut. But Tyler Means, the chief mobility and strategy officer for the agency, called the situation “a zero-sum game” and warned the city council that without more money, the cost of saving one route would result in cuts from another.
Council member Johnathan Duncan said that “robust public transit is public safety,” economic development and access, and that the city should consider spending more on transit to help these goals.
Where the KCATA gets its money
Kansas City funds the KCATA through two sales taxes. One, the 3/8th-cent KCATA sales tax, gives all of its more than $39 million in annual revenue to the transit agency.
But about 15 years ago, the city began decreasing the amount it gives the agency from its half-cent public mass transportation sales tax. In this year’s proposed budget, the city is using about 20% of the tax, or nearly $11 million, for other infrastructure and transportation-related costs.
Those voter-approved sales tax dollars only come from in-person purchases. Shoppers still pay those taxes on online purchases, but the money goes directly to the city’s general fund. In the last budget cycle, that meant more than $27 million voters designated for the KCATA and public mass transportation taxes went to the general fund instead.
Council member Melissa Robinson has been advocating for the city to direct online sales tax money to the funds they would normally be reserved for. She noted in the committee meeting that doing so would effectively fill the KCATA’s budget deficit and remove the need for these cuts.
“We need to do this with every other tax, and make sure that you all get the money to do the things that the voters voted on to do,” Robinson said. “Shame on us for not doing that.”
The KCATA will present the possible cuts to its Planning and Operations Committee on March 16, and will then start public engagement.
Ferguson said he’s hopeful the city may allocate more money to the KCATA in its final budget so the agency can “provide less negative service impact to our riders.” But he recognized it may be a tough feat. Kansas City is also facing a budget shortfall, and kept this year’s budget at the same cost as last year due to slowing revenue growth and increasing expenses.
The proposed cuts
The proposed weekday routes that would be cut are:
- 9, Ninth Street
- 21, Cleveland Antioch
- 23, 23rd Street
- 25, Troost Local
- 27, 27th Street
- 57, Wornall
- 71, Prospect Local
- 75, 75th Street
The 12, 18, 31 and 35 routes would also face changes to their hours if the plan goes through. The 12, 18 and 35 would have 60-minute headways. The 31, one of the city’s most frequent routes, would go from 15-minute to 30-minute headways.
The proposed weekend routes to be cut are:
- 9, Ninth Street
- 11, Northeast Westside
- 12, 12th Street
- 18, Indiana
- 21, Cleveland Antioch
- 23, 23rd Street
- 25, Troost Local
- 27, 27th Street
- 28, Blue Ridge
- 35, 35th Street
- 39, 39th Street
- 47, Broadway
- 57, Wornall
- 63, 63rd Street
- 71, Prospect Local
- 75, 75th Street
- 85, Paseo
- 210, Front Street
- 229, Boardwalk-KCI
- 238, Meadowbrook
