KC Streetcar Authority

With all the track for the KC Streetcar expansion to UMKC now installed, Mayor Quinton Lucas said the project is about 93% done. What's left though is months of testing before it can open next summer.

Kansas City's streetcar will stop running at the end of September so that construction crews can connect the existing tracks at Union Station to the UMKC extension. The city will offer bus service along the route during the outage.

Kansas City Manager Brian Platt says construction on the KC Streetcar southern extension is in its final stages, and the route remains on track to open next year. Meanwhile, talks of potential east-west extensions are still in the works.

The Current’s new riverfront stadium was meant to encourage fans to take transit, bike or walk to games instead of driving. But Kansas City still hasn’t caught up — and it’s left the team and other entertainment venues to fill in the gaps.

Since 2017, the Kansas City Streetcar Holiday Jam brings live music and local musicians to crowds of tourists and shoppers traveling between Union Station and River Market.

Planning for a future East-West streetcar line is still in the early stages. But the possible line would have sixteen stops connecting Van Brunt Boulevard to the University of Kansas Health System.

The Kansas City Streetcar Authority typically charges local organizations thousands of dollars to sponsor decorations for its vehicles. But rather than being paid for by Mattel or Warner Bros. Pictures, the hot pink and reference-filled “Dream Streetcar” came out of the agency’s mostly tax-funded budget.

City Manager Brian Platt has until November to look into a streetcar-exclusive lane as it expands south to UMKC. Proponents say it would improve the efficiency of the streetcar.

It's gotten even harder to get around downtown Kansas City. After a "track failure" caused by the summer heat, the KC Streetcar has suspended service — and it likely will be down for several weeks. With construction still ongoing for the extension to UMKC, the incident is raising questions about the durability of the streetcar infrastructure.

As construction on the KC Streetcar extension to UMKC continues, crews are now working 24/7 on emergency repairs to address a track failure on the line above I-670. It will take weeks to complete the repairs, and service is suspended in the meantime.

The 2023 men’s and women’s Big 12 basketball championships are getting underway at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center and Municipal Auditorium, respectively. This week's tournament will bring plenty of great games, a lot of disruptions to downtown traffic patterns, and one Shaquille O’Neal.

Construction on a northbound streetcar extension, from River Market to the Berkeley Riverfront, will begin next year. But there's still plenty of work left to do on the route to UMKC, with an expected open date in 2025.