KCMO Downtown Streetcar

[normalthings]

15% YOY Ridership Growth in Q1 2019. We are on track to do 2.4 Million rides in 2019.

Jan-March 2019: 449,646 Rides. (4,996 per day?)
Jan-March 2018: 390,469 Rides. (4,338 per day?)
Jan-March 2017: 398,672 Rides. (4,429 per day?)

[earthling]

March Details..
http://kcstreetcar.org/wp-content/uploa ... ership.pdf

[Riverite]

Wasn’t it terrible weather in KC all winter. That would make it even more impressive

[normalthings]

Wasn’t it terrible weather in KC all winter. That would make it even more impressive

Yes, it was one of the coldest and longest winters on record.

[flyingember]

Wasn’t it terrible weather in KC all winter. That would make it even more impressive

Yes, it was one of the coldest and longest winters on record.

Not even close on coldest.
I checked for days with a high or low above the average

Dec had 23 days over the average
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/kansa ... =12/1/2018

Warmer in Jan at 19 days
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/kansa ... her/329441

Feb skewed colder with only 11 over the average
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/kansa ... r=2/1/2019

Mar was warmer with 18 days above average
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/kansa ... r=3/1/2019

It snowed a lot this year and the temperature went up and down, but I’m not sure the snowfall either was near a record. In Mar 1912 there was four feet of snow and the whole season was 71”.

[normalthings]

^^^ by coldest I am referring to longest stretch of time without temperatures above 65 degrees. I guess it’s an arbitrary stat but it’s what Nationals Weather Service has been using this year.

My comment was a poor choice. However, winter 2018-2019 was much worse than 2016-2017 and 2017-2018

[flyingember]

65? That shows just how warm winters are these days.

The historic average temperature doesn’t get over 65 after mid October. two months before winter.

They’re basically counting the days since early autumn. It’s not expected to be anywhere near that warm in winter unless they’re finally trying to find a new standard to redefine the seasons for climate change where everything is warmer.

[WoodDraw]

No matter what metric you use, it was a brutal winter. More than normal which made it hard to walk around and also lots of snow that just wouldn't melt.

I'm not sure there is a good metric for downtown weather. Need something that combines cold with non-melting snow and ice.

It can be cold for twenty days straight and people will deal, but you add weather to that and it's a different story.

[KCPowercat]

This winter sucked.

[flyingember]

We're probably right around the 9 month point to the new trains. I would guess at this point that it would take a major delay to take more than 10-11 months.

Probably right around the six month mark until delivery.

Roughly the four month point until delivery if everything is on track (pun intended).

[normalthings]

I had a pretty high up city employee tell me that the streetcar is bankrupting the city.

[DaveKCMO]

They spend more annually on parking garage debt service (~$17 million last year!) than they spend on all of streetcar (~$10 million), including debt service and operations. At least the streetcar uses dedicated funding (TDD + 1/2-cent transit sales tax), while all of the parking debt service comes from the general fund.

[normalthings]

They spend more annually on parking garage debt service (~$17 million last year!) than they spend on all of streetcar (~$10 million), including debt service and operations. At least the streetcar uses dedicated funding (TDD + 1/2-cent transit sales tax), while all of the parking debt service comes from the general fund.

The real kicker is that they work in the City Finance Department.

[DaveKCMO]

Theoretically, if the city defaulted on the bonds they chose to back I suppose it would be a political problem, but at a peak of $63 million it's probably nowhere near bankrupting a $1.7 billion enterprise (especially since the TDD generates an annual surplus and has multiple reserve accounts to protect debt service, capital, and operations).

In short, that person is, at worst, a liar... or, at best, full of hyperbole.

[flyingember]

We're probably right around the 9 month point to the new trains. I would guess at this point that it would take a major delay to take more than 10-11 months.

Probably right around the six month mark until delivery.

Roughly the four month point until delivery if everything is on track (pun intended).

About three months to go for the new trains if everything is on schedule.

[swid]

805 is arriving next week (per this KC Streetcar Twitter post)

[earthling]

Will 4 cars run more often regularly or will more cars only be used for high traffic events?

Separately, have we reached the point to propose zero public street parking along most of the line? Maybe start with snow days only, which seem to have the worst poor parking problems blocking streetcars.

[normalthings]

We are roughly on track to do 2.2-2.4 million rides this year(~8.5% YoY Growth). 2019 Average Daily Ridership(through April) is at ~5,185; 14.5% YoY increase from 2018’s 4,529.

[WoodDraw]

It's all been very impressive. Excited for the new streetcar.

I know they have no power, but it would be so helpful to reduce main car traffic.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

For comparison, the Cincinnati Streetcar did 36,333 in April. YTD, Cinci's total is 118,884 (991 per day) vs 622,310 for KC.

Milwaukee had a glitch that caused them to lose ridership data for February and half of March. In January, they had 49,501 - 1,597 per day

OKC had 102,500 through March - 1,139 per day.

St Louis's Loop Trolley had a total of 4,259 tickets sold over it's first 4 months.

Tampa's streetcar recently switched to free and their ridership has tripled. March was their biggest month ever at 99,675. It looks like they have been averaging roughly 2,500 per day since the switch last October.