TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! TALK OF KC STRIP TROLLEY TOTAL FAIL FORESHADOWS THE IMPENDING DOWNTOWN KANSAS CITY TOY TRAIN DISASTER!!!
Quite a few people have come forward to provide insight on The KC Strip Trolley and how it has become an unmitigated disaster of a Kansas City transit effort aimed to spark economic development.
Now more than ever this testimony is important given that Kansas City is on the precipice of politicos railroading this town with an even more expensive Downtown Streetcar Line that attempts to recreate the same failure at even greater expense.
To wit . . .
THE FAILURE OF THE KC STRIP TROLLEY PROVIDES A PERFECT PRECURSOR TO DOWNTOWN KANSAS CITY STREETCAR DISASTER!!! BEST OF ALL, WE HAVE NEW DETAILS REGARDING THE TROLLEY IMPLOSION!!!
We'll start with established facts and then work our way toward new testimony that will take place over a few posts . . .
It is a documented fact that the KC Strip failed to live up to promises to pay back the money on the TAX FREE loan bestowed upon the operation by City Hall.
Also . . . Ridership numbers are facing some serious questions because they don't measure up to previous claims from KC Strip operators. Real Talk: Look at the trolleys on any given night and they're virtually empty. This is a situation that has persisted since the inception of the KC trolley system.
Wait . . . It gets worse . . .
THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE OF KANSAS CITY AND CITY HALL SOURCES WE'RE HEARING THAT EXPENSIVE TROLLEY MAINTENANCE WILL EVENTUALLY BRING THE KC STRIP TO A SCREECHING HALT!!!
More than a few people have noticed the trolleys in bad shape.
At City Hall . . . A source familiar with the TAX FREE LOAN the KC Strip enjoys gave us a chilling quote.
"Tony, you know the loan you keep harping on . . . That money has already been spent. The maintenance alone on those trolleys wiped out those funds. KC will never see that money again."
A TOP LEVEL AND KICK-ASS KANSAS CITY ECONOMIC THEORIST AND TKC TIPSTER CONFIRMS that problems with maintenance might be a key factor in the way we'll see the KC Strip come to an end . . .
"Without much fanfare, expect fewer trolleys on the line as the operation slowly withers. If the ridership doesn't meet expectations there's just no reason to maintain the same fleet of trolleys established at the outset of the operation."
Finally, another source we've talked to makes it plain . . .
"Don't expect to see the KC Strip around in another 6 months. That should put them at the end of their contract and there won't be an effort to renew. If that happens, it's just throwing good money after bad."
To wit . . .
THE FAILURE OF THE KC STRIP HAS SHOWN US THAT TRANSIT SCHEMES IN KANSAS CITY DON'T WORK TO SPARK ECONOMIC GROWTH!!! SADLY, KANSAS CITY IS HELL BENT ON REPEATING THE SAME FAILED EXPERIMENT FOR BIGGER STAKES!!!
We have even more info on this Kansas City transit scheme gone bad . . .
Thanks to more than a few AWESOME TKC TIPSTERS who wanted the public to have this info now that City Hall politicos are trying to play the same game with an almost secret ballot on another KC toy train project. We'll have even more KC Strip facts as the operation slowly grinds to a halt and a new toy train is developed with the same faulty logic.
DEVELOPING . . .
What a waste.
ReplyDeleteIf you're stupid enough to define economic development as taking people to bars, you deserve to fail. It's just too bad that the KCMO electeds alwyas fail with YOUR money!
ReplyDeleteBill Nigro screwed the city into coughing up the money for this epic failure. Next Bill will screw the taxpayers out of the money when he does not payback the loan leaving the taxpayers to foot that bill as well.
ReplyDeleteNow Sly comes along and wants to screw the taxpayers as well with another version of a rolling epic failure and there is idiots abound who think it is such a good idea.
Wake up people in Kansas City before you end up paying for another epic fail. Then vote the head of the James Gang out of office along with his cronies.
On the topic of the toy train, Steve Rose questioned it on Ruckus on Thursday, and the other clowns kind of blew him off.
ReplyDeleteThe River Market-Crown Center route is already overserved by many bus routes. Why invest in redundancy?
BREAKING Failure of Flint Michigan Taco Bell spells doom for Mexican food in the United States.
ReplyDeleteThat last comment about taco places was asinine. Who would have thought when throwing the Funk out, that the alternative would come to this loser and his ideas? How can he now back out and safe face?
ReplyDeleteOnce again TKC displays his complete ignorance of business, and his willingness to print any unsubstantiated gossip that comes his way. TKC has been calling for the demise of the KC Strip since it started over 2 years ago. Yet it still runs every Friday and Saturday night and still pays back it's city loan in exact accordance with the repayment schedule.
ReplyDeleteTKC don't let any of the facts get in the way of your "reporting".
The two are as different as busses and cable cars.
ReplyDeleteI hate waste, graft, insider baseball, and political gamesmanship, but I like the toy train. TOOT!!! TOOT!!!
Uh, 6:58, the busses would largely be removed from the route and redeployed to improve service to other areas.
ReplyDeleteNigro's his bitch in this deal. Nigro was implicit in the politics but George has played it up as part of his French owned "mini-empire" he oversees. They're both culpible but George used his political juice on it to a greater extent than Nigro and he should never be trusted by City Hall again.
ReplyDeleteUh, 8:38, (1) where is this stated anywhere and (2) if this is true, how will people who ride the bus to work from, say somewhere other than River Market to Crown Center get there if they work between 25th and the river?
ReplyDeleteRelated:
ReplyDeleteMy garden is not doing so well, ergo...the collapse of American agriculture is inevitable. Farming is a boondoggle.
Another in a long line of self serving duds from Nigro.
ReplyDeleteWestport's been tired of him for YEARS.
9:08- In regards to your questions, 1) You are correct. It is not stated anywhere. That is how transit agencies operate. They work from ridership numbers along a give route and provide capacity and headways along that route. Overcapacity? Move the conveyance to another route. And since it is much easier to move busses on wheels that drive on pavement (as opposed to streetcars that operate in fixed guideways), it's pretty easy to figure out that it will be the busses that move. 2) Same way they do now. The cross traffic won't stop. But busses that come in from other places and the drive down Main will probably require riders to transfer (like at 10th and Main) into the streetcar system.
ReplyDeleteNow a couple questions for you 1) Do you presently ride the bus and 2) Have you ever lived in a city that has a real transit system and did you use it?
Nigro and George will screw KC plain and simple and lie while doing so. Making payments my ass.
ReplyDeleteSly will do the same thing as well.
And to 9:21 no the loser does not ride public transit the percertage that do isn't a drop in the bucket.
He probably lives in WY county and wants you to pay high taxes to build the damn toy train. As Super Dave says another epic failure.
This city's streets and suburbs aren't laid out like NY or Washington, or Boston.....where there's a crosstown bus system to compliment a subway. KC is built around a car system. People either work in the suburbs and come to KC, or live in suburbs and go to another suburb to work. IT makes little sense to have a surface rail system on a street where its easier to drive the short route, and as someone says, adding a streetcar system to drive drunks to bars isn't so efficient. All it'll be good for is for a beauty photo on the front of the phonebook.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if the would encourage the word "strip" on this trolley it would encourage more riders.
ReplyDeleteWhy couldn't The Bill's Trolleys be used Downtown on the Toy route?
ReplyDeleteUm, 11:15, KC was built around one of the bet public transportation systems in the country up until the mid 1950's. That's when developers decided they could make more money pushing people further and further out to the subdivisions they built on the cheap land that they controlled that was artificially stimulated through the mortgage lending system (among other ways). The highways were built to facilitate this and the conversion of the past WWII industrial capabilities from wartime to peacetime products.
ReplyDeleteWhat it will do is allow me, a downtown resident, and tens of thousand of others like me, is to dump a car, a car payment, gas, maintenance, insurance, and taxes and to instead send our kids to decent schools, reduce congestion, and spend some money o things other than a second car.
What that means for non-downtown residents is that fewer cars means less pollution. We are close to becoming a non-attainment area as it is. If gas pumps have to be retrofitted with VRUs; power plants have to be retrofitted with scrubbers; and if vehicles must pas. Annual tailpipe emissions tests, who do you think gets the bill?
If you want to argue the drunk trolley was a bad idea and a bad deal, I'll cheer you on. But the streetcar is a good and necessary thing and will put money in everyone's pocket (albeit some more than others).
You're an idiotic tree hugger. RIDE THE METRO BUS MORON!
DeleteSigned,
IMABADASS.
Kansas City is run by crooks.
ReplyDeleteIt's faster to drive in NYC and Boston and DC than take a subway, too. That's why there are cabs, and why people pay more to take them.
ReplyDeletePublic transit is always slower than private cars, even in congested cities.
And Kansas City is laid out on a grid, with a linear spine of densely populated area, most of the city's cultural amenities and attractions and the densest corridor of jobs running in a straight line more or less from the River to the Plaza between Troost and Broadway.
Come to think of it, it's actually just about the perfect city for a rail spine and crosstown bus system.
Word from at least one City Councilman is that "we'll take Georges $ but he's not well liked. He's arrogant as hell and lives in Leawood".
ReplyDeleteAs for Nigro, he's a mouthy buffoon who's accepted like a cold. There aint no cure.
Both have suffered an enormous loss of political capital with the Trolley scam.
Never gonna happen, 2:24. You haven't spent enough time in NYC, studied its shape, speed and frequency of its subways and density of structures where people would come and go.
ReplyDeleteWhatever your job, it aint urban planning.
HMMMM and one of Bill George's cab drivers was found shot to death..they said he got wacked - Bill George JR is mob affiliated folks...no surprise! Super shuttle vans might save you money on your way to the airport, but just know you are rolling there with the mob!
ReplyDeleteReally ???? The so called "mob" affiliated cab company owner had an immigrant cabbie killed?
DeleteFor what?
Late lease payment??
You people watch too much TV.....
Opps for you retarded folks here are the keywords for mobsters in KC, KCTG (.com) which includes: yellow cab, super shuttle vans, 10/10 taxi (1010taxi.com) Executive transportation to the airport by KCTG!The Kansas City Council, along with its mayor! The Local 42's fire union and their followers, etc etc etc...time to get informed people!! Bad thing is I think many are informed but to big of pussies to do anything to make a change!!!
ReplyDeleteWas thinking about a new car - was looking at a kia in Olathe where I live, On the radio ad it said : Bill George's Olathe Kia locally owned.. is this the same BG?
ReplyDeleteYep...the old man's now but Billy boy's soon when the French run him out of Kansas City and out to Kansas. His shit is said to be pretty weak with them right now.
ReplyDelete4:19, I lived in NYC (Woodlawn, the Bronx, on the 4 line)for 43 years, where I was born and raised. From a big Irish family, father worked for the sanitation department and took the bus to work, my mother was a private school teacher in Conneticut and took the family car to work.
ReplyDeleteI came to KC 10 years ago, and love/hate it. Don't need an undergad "urban studies" degree from some bullshit midwestern college to understand how my native city operates. Or how this one could...
Sincerely,
2:24
Don't buy a cab ride, limo ride, shuttle ride, trolley ride or Kia from Bill George. The guy is as crooked as a dog's hind leg. The French Veolians are tired of him and will likely toss him out on his fat hairy ass. He's tried to screw with the NTDF law to benefit his buddies. He's a pig and a whore and a liar. If Bill George has touched it, it is either a piece of shit or will be shit soon. Handle George as if he were toxic waste, which he is.
ReplyDeleteCraig, go to bed
ReplyDeleteHa....
DeleteThat's comedy.
Even a sleep-deprived Craig is right once in a while.
ReplyDeleteIs Glaser in on this shit too?
ReplyDelete9:21: (1) I am retired, but I use the bus when I go downtown as it is cheaper and I don't have to worry about where to park my car. Access to bus lines and being able to walk to a lot of places was a factor in buying where I live. I did use the bus when I worked downtown. (2) I once lived in Queens and worked further out on Long Island. I drove to work but used public transit (bus to Kew Gardens and and subway into town) when I would go into the city.
ReplyDeleteNow another couple of questions for you--(1) why assume the bus routes on Main will be rerouted and (2) won't rerouting the bus lines and requiring people to use the bus and transfer to the street car make using public transit less convenient?
It seems to me that the powers that be at KCATA are not interested in encouraging people to use public transit. Every time ridership goes up they do something stupid like raise fares and now they're playing loud ads on the busses, as if listening to people on their phones weren't enough noise pollution.
1:30:
ReplyDeleteYou say, "What it will do is allow me, a downtown resident, and tens of thousand of others like me, is to dump a car, a car payment, gas, maintenance, insurance, and taxes and to instead send our kids to decent schools, reduce congestion, and spend some money o things other than a second car."
You can already get from River Market to Crown Center on a bunch of bus routes. How will the toy train improve your ability to dump your car?
It's not Glazer, it's Bates form Checker cab. He and George control the cab biz in town and most peple think they hate each other. I think their in together against the drivers and shitty small companies (like Atlas Cab).I've worked both and theyre both very trecheous. George has fucked us with the Troleys and I hate his guts. Bates turns in his drivers to the city for bullshit stuff gets them busted. The cab bizness is all fucked up do to these guys.
ReplyDelete8:03- Try taking those busses from River Market to Crown Center and come back and report on your findings.
ReplyDeleteI do....everyday....
DeleteWorks great! I even see off duty police officers working that route.
Reort- contented.
@8:03- one word- reliability.
ReplyDelete9:11 and 9:12: Have done so many times, and they're reliable--there are at least three bus routes, one of which is the MAX, that go from Crown Center to River Market reliably.
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to wonder how familiar the toy train promoters are with existing services and how much more reliable you think the toy train would be and why.
'Fess up--you're one of the potential toy train contractors, aren't you?
Bill George= everything 11:03 pm said. And more.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I'm not Craig Glazer.
If it is crooked and shady dealing then Glazer is in on it.
ReplyDeleteGlazer has been well lets say he's taking care of the two Bills urges and has been for years.
Why his breath is always so bad with that musky smell to it.
It's all a trick he learned while in jail.