transportation

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.

As Kansas City gears up for the 2026 World Cup, some residents are concerned that the metro’s public transit system can’t keep up with a rapidly growing city. KCATA CEO Frank White III speaks about how the transportation authority is preparing.

The KCATA says Kansas City, Missouri, residents will no longer subsidize the costs to run buses through the surrounding suburbs. That's meant a dramatic increase in costs to individual cities — pushing many municipalities like Gladstone and Liberty to cancel their bus service entirely.

New Growth Transit connects Missouri's rural residents who can't get to their medical and health care appointments with a network of volunteer drivers.

The roughly 17.5-mile stretch of K-10 that runs through Johnson County and its surrounding traffic corridor have long been considered in need of improvement by state and local leaders. The highway sees some 80,000 cars a day, and an express toll way may

Senior citizens who want to live in the same rural towns where they grew up face a growing problem: how to get around. Unreliable transportation means many seniors have trouble shopping for groceries, visiting family and getting to medical care.

The independent report from the Missouri Department of Transportation lays out safety improvements to the state’s three passenger rail lines. They come a little more than one year after a train-truck crash killed four people outside Kansas City.

Recently re-elected Mayor Quinton Lucas and the new Kansas City Council will be sworn in Tuesday morning — signaling the start of their four-year term. But for the six newcomers, including Johnathan Duncan and Crispin Rea, preparation began weeks ago.

Included in the budget passed by lawmakers this session and signed by Gov. Mike Parson in June was around $2.8 billion to expand I-70 to three lanes in each direction. On Wednesday, commissioners approved the first steps of acquiring that money.

The city’s new on-demand transit service, IRIS, will now serve riders across the entire metro — with the intention of filling in the gaps of existing bus routes. The expansion is happening at the same time that KCATA hikes the cost of providing bus service to surrounding municipalities, causing concerns about accessibility.

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.

Kansas City was once home to a robust streetcar system. Then, the arrival of the car caused it, along with most other American cities, to plan cityscapes for automobiles. As Kansas City works on extending its solo streetcar line, one transit historian says it's time for cities like ours to give residents significantly more options.