KCRag Forum

Northland BRT or Rail in the cards

normalthings wrote: ↑Thu Oct 21, 2021 5:10 pm Northland BRT or Rail in the cards

Would a World Cup kick Cordish into gear to get that cap built?

Does this infrastructure bill speed up the timeline for the next streetcar extension (like E-W)? Alot of reading out there is suggesting it does.

AlkaliAxel wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:53 pm Does this infrastructure bill speed up the timeline for the next streetcar extension (like E-W)? Alot of reading out there is suggesting it does.

No local funding

normalthings wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 8:13 pm https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-cit ... _AwJxF_vM#

https://kcrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21225

normalthings wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 8:13 pm https://www.kmbc.com/article/kansas-cit ... _AwJxF_vM#

Which is great but how do you fund operations?

Obviously kc has gone all in on fair free transport. But they don’t run for free.

The Fed’s might build it, but they’re going to want to know how we pray for it. Just have the city subsidize all routes?

I think a local TDD can support ops on that route. It would be silly not to go for it

Need the regional transit initiative for future funding operations and additional local match for capital expense. With all that federal money at stake, we need to speed up our time to submit new upgrades and routes. 1 year+ to study something is too long. We need to do all the studies in a roadmap in one go as part of a regional plan, and then be able to green light routes once funding is achieved. This is what peer cities like Denver and Salt Lake have done. Additional phases like Northland, 31st/Linwood to TSC, DT Overland Park should all be studied as soon as possible.

alejandro46 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 8:47 pm Need the regional transit initiative for future funding operations and additional local match for capital expense. With all that federal money at stake, we need to speed up our time to submit new upgrades and routes. 1 year+ to study something is too long. We need to do all the studies in a roadmap in one go as part of a regional plan, and then be able to green light routes once funding is achieved. This is what peer cities like Denver and Salt Lake have done. Additional phases like Northland, 31st/Linwood to TSC, DT Overland Park should all be studied as soon as possible.

100% agreed. 1+ year to do just a study, and we'll be behind on this infrastructure bill by then to prob a dozen other cities.

Props to the people who did the south loop cap stuff- they saw the infra bill coming, they got their shit ready, and now they're first in line and all ready to go that it's now law. That's what we should've been doing for streetcar too- we all knew this infra bill was coming this year.

IF -- and it's a big if -- the feds change their match requirement then you MIGHT be able to do a TDD to support the east/west route. The match requirement has only been getting worse for transit (down to 50% or less from the 80%+ of the 70s) across all administrations. Ideally, federal match for all projects would be the same (centrist view) or would be weighted to transit (streetcar gets 80% federal match while widening US-69 gets 50% because the planet is burning).

But you can't plan for that until the rules formally change or they start throwing cash at projects above and beyond the traditional programs (which DOT now has authorization to do but again we have yet to see how that process works).

It's best to just focus on regional funding for operations because this region's biggest issue is job access. You have to increase coverage and frequency across the metro, not just on one route.

Would any of this $9 bil for Missouri go to doing Phase 3, and speed up the process? With the funds there they could just start this relatively soon I’d think and not have to wait on the Feds for money.
https://twitter.com/kcur/status/1461518 ... 71746?s=21

I wouldn't get my hopes up with any funds the state has control over.

We might get lucky with direct federal grants that the state has no say over.

FangKC wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:37 pm I wouldn't get my hopes up with any funds the state has control over.

We might get lucky with direct federal grants that the state has no say over.

Yeah, on this one I think you’re probably right- although they did mention KC Streetcar directly in the article.

Keep in mind the head of the DOT will have no say in the final decision in how the funds are allocated.

FangKC wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:42 pm Keep in mind the head of the DOT will have no say in the final decision in how the funds are allocated.

I do think it’s strange that KC is coming out with absolutely nothing from the infrastructure bill. Literally zero. Poplar Bluff, MO probably has a better chance because it’s got rotting bridges.

Yet we got more funds for KC projects when nothing was happening, like during the Trump era and before. How did they manage to blow the entire $1.7 tril bill and end up with nothing?

AlkaliAxel wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:50 pm

FangKC wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:42 pm Keep in mind the head of the DOT will have no say in the final decision in how the funds are allocated.

I do think it’s strange that KC is coming out with absolutely nothing from the infrastructure bill. Literally zero. Poplar Bluff, MO probably has a better chance because it’s got rotting bridges.

Yet we got more funds for KC projects when nothing was happening, like during the Trump era and before. How did they manage to blow the entire $1.7 tril bill and end up with nothing?

Only about $580B of the bill was new money, the rest had already been budgeted. The total is over 10 years. So realistically you are looking at $58B a year in new spending or $1.16 B per state per year. $1.3 trillion looks like a lot in the news, but in reality, not as earth-shattering as we hoped.

That's about $165 per person, per year, in the state of Missouri. Or $150 per person per year in the united states.

Somebody check my numbers.

It's still not enough to bring our country's infrastructure completely up to date, must less advance it to the top in the world. We have been underfunded for decades. This money is just applying a band-aid in many ways. We won't be building that much new stuff as much as just repairing what we already have. The broadband internet for small towns and rural areas is probably the best example of new. If we get some streetcar extensions, and electric buses, there will be progress at least. Still, we need to do it.

Could we have the streetcar terminus be at 39th for KU Med, and then go north up to Linwood so that Penn Valley could be included, and then just go east down Linwood? That way we can include both Penn and KU Med.

That is a likely scenario. They will do a study and make decisions from that.

I think one thrown out there is 39th and Rainbow Boulevard east to Broadway, then north to Linwood, then east to at least the VA Hospital, and perhaps on to the TSC.