Comments on: Missouri can go it alone on transit

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 25 May 2006 01:50:54 +0000

Well I live in Johnson County and have been a huge supporter of light rail. I know there is bus service, but I don’t have any desire to ride a bus. If light rail would a reality in KC I would ride it! I think it would be awesome if there would be light rail along I-35 South through JoCo, along I-70 East with stops at the stadium for sure, and track up to the airport. I know this is alot but that would be a great way to link our city together. You also don’t have to stop there, but I know it’s all about money, but I would definatly vote YES if it came up for a vote. Also, KC can support a light rail system. If you look at smaller cities in the U.S. it has done well. St. Louis which is just a little bigger than KC (in population) has done very well. It CAN work because if it could not then state officals would not be considering this at all.

By: Larry Thrasher

Larry Thrasher — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 23:09:28 +0000

Kansas City does not have enought people to support transit because of leap frog development. With $60 million cast per mile and only 20,000 riders the cost to tax payers would be far to high. So Derek,Matt, Chris and KCWeather how much do you ride the bus?

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:24:25 +0000

Has anyone else read about the serious labor shortage out at the Legends in western WyCo? Yet there is only very limited bus access to the area. If you worked there at an upscale shop for “downscale” wages, you would spend a lot of your money on gas. Probably wouldn’t be worth it.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 20:35:43 +0000

Thank you for clearing that up.

By: BlogKC

BlogKC — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:34:03 +0000

Light rail runs on tracks in city streets. It’s just a new name for the trolleys and street cars that we used to have all over KC. It’s much different from heavy rail (a.k.a commuter rail), is a real train running on real railroad tracks.

In the US, passenger rail (either commuter rail or intercity Amtrak) has been reduced to renting tracks from the freight lines. That means they have to share track have limited capacity to expand.

In KC we are especially challenged because our tracks are already filled to capacity with freight traffic. In fact, the I-70 commuter rail will probably have no choice but to use track that ends at the River Market – because there is no capacity available on the tracks approaching Union Station.

Actually, any kind of commuter rail at Union Station is doubtful. It only has one passenger track left, for Amtrak. The others were torn up to build the Science City addition. So there isn’t really any place for more passenger trains to park.

By: matt

matt — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:53:29 +0000

derek-
light rail doesnt run on heavy rail tracks, that would be commuter rail, which yes, there are problems from what i hear concerning cooperation.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:21:53 +0000

While a light-rail system would be nice, but where would one be put?

I fail to see how and where lines can be put in parts of the Metro. I don’t know… some cooperation between Amtrak or the various freight lines. That’s the main problem I have with light rail in the metro.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:18:08 +0000

I see your point. Yeah, a regional fund of some kind would work in our favor.

Admittedly, I don’t follow the events in our city council, so I couldn’t tell you what’s going on.

By: matt

matt — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:10:50 +0000

light rail actually encourages development, especially downtown. if you want to see downtowns potential realized, you must have light rail FIRST and not as an after thought. you need only go to our peer city denver to see this happening.

By: busrider

busrider — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:01:16 +0000

To those of you who live in JoCo and support more transit: if you haven’t contacted your mayor (council too wouldn’t hurt) to voice your desire for transit in the county, please do so. It doesn’t do as much good for people outside the area to contact them. The mayors are a big factor in this for Kansas, not just the state legislators. If you have already contacted your mayor–maybe do so again in relation to this article.