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Central Standard

The History Of The Kansas City Streetcar

ChrisM70
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Flickr -- Creative Commons

Kansas City, Mo., is well on its way to building a downtown streetcar line. In the works is a two-mile project from River Market to Union Station, and it's likely there will be more miles of track extending further into the city.

Kansas City once had more than 300 miles of streetcar track, one of the largest systems in America, but the city tore up the tracks or, in some cases, paved over it.

On Friday's Central Standard host Monroe Dodd will talk with Russ Johnson, City Council Member of Kansas City, Mo., and explore the history of this bygone system that is starting to reemerge.

These videos from Kansas City's first streetcar system give a sense of how integrated the system was into the fabric of Kansas City life:

Guest:

  • Russ Johnson, City Council Member of KCMO
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Central Standard streetcar
Matthew Long-Middleton has been a talk-show producer, community producer, Media Training Manager and now the Community Engagement Manager at KCUR. You can reach him at Matthew@kcur.org, or on Twitter @MLMIndustries.