Terminal track allows layover instead of doing the loop, so bunching will be much less of a concern. Significant event driver in decent weather (April—October) with the stadium. Eventually a possible Viking river connection, which PortKC had voiced a desire for the riverfront to be the possible port (don’t know how tenable it would be but that’s what it’s been sold as). Isolated island of development, with still less than half of it fully fleshed out. A possible park and ride at the city lots at Ballys KC, and long range it gives a possibility to expand to a future redeveloped East bottoms.smh wrote: ↑Sat Dec 10, 2022 9:51 amI just struggle to get onboard (hehe) with the vision. We're talking a relative handful of apartments and a significant amount of money to get down there, plus operational impacts to any future extension over the river (as mentioned by GRID). Had Port executed the original vision for the Riverfront as a dense walkable neighborhood with thousands of residents then I think this routing might be justifiable. But as is it just doesn't seem justified. Run a shuttle to 3rd and Grand.KCPowercat wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:28 pmConnection of the housing that has little link to downtown now. The ped/bike bridge will obviously help that too.smh wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 12:36 pm I still don't really understand the usefulness of this extension. What are the ridership projections? Taking it to the Current stadium seems to be the new selling point, but won't the vehicle be stuck in stadium traffic on the bridge, potentially impacting operations for the entire line down to UMKC?
KC Streetcar stands out because of how well it was executed. I guess I'm just worried this is going to muck up the existing system and harm the overall productivity of the service.
Also if (I believe it will) go under 35 to Isle of Capri and the city owned lot there would add value.
I mean, I am happy to be wrong but I am also aware that a lot of American streetcar systems try to do too much and end up being less useful than they might otherwise have been. The great thing about KC is we got it exactly right on the starter line which is why our system gets great press and kills most others on ridership. To me, the riverfront extension does not build on that success but rather dilutes it.
From the way it’s sounded the NKC extension was always going to operate as a separate route, even without the riverfront, so I don’t see it as much of a functional loss. For the cost to the city, which is fairly negligible, as most of this is coming from the feds, I’d say it’s a win