TKC SUNDAY SPECIAL!!! KANSAS CITY TOY TRAIN STREETCAR MOSTLY FOR WEEKENDS, SO FIX THE SCHEDULE TO SAVE CASH!!!
Despite the social media, instagramz and sponsored tweets of Kansas City transit cheerleaders . . . It seems the streetcar is nothing more than "touristy frou-frou" which is what most critics predicted. Still, the thing costs money and as the Summer comes to a (violent) conclusion, there's concern about cost that continues to ramp up despite hyped up numbers which tout ridership without providing context.
Here's the word and something to consider for Sunday that contradicts so many consultants and soulless newsies paid to tout the project . . .
TKC READER SUGGESTION: "I live in River Market and see the streetcars daily. There are very few riders on the weekdays; the cars are almost empty. This applies to morning, afternoons, and evening. There are riders on the weekends. The management needs to adjust their operating schedule to meet the demand. I would think this would suggest that weekday service be discontinued and service offered only on the weekends. The resulting savings passed on to the taxpayers in the transportation district."
You decide . . .
The weekday crowds are only packed around lunch which is fine but not sustainable.
ReplyDeleteI think we should have them during the weekday but reduce the empty trains running back and forth.
Aren't we supposed to be a "smart city" ? so let's save a bit of energy and optimize the streetcar.
better idea: cut traffic off to main street and we'll get more riders on the streetcar.
ReplyDeleteThat 550,000 number the streetcar is touting is greater than the entire population of Kansas City, Missouri. At some point this number is going to get so stupid they're going to stop tracking it.
ReplyDeleteThe Troost Max line is much more densely traveled without as much subsidy but it's filled with people just trying to get to work so no bragging from consultants.
7:01 you're wrong. This year the kc tourism bureau says that KCMO is projected to host over 240 million visitors. The bureau believes that at least half of the out of towners are coming just to ride the toy train. Do the math. We need to extend the trolley out to 95th and Troost. The large numbers of workers riding to and from luxury downtown condos/apartments to to the Bannister Bendix complex will shoot the ridership numbers into the stratosphere.
ReplyDeleteThere were actually three people riding it last week when a van hit the streetcar and they were inconvenienced for half an hour. http://www.kctv5.com/story/32552806/delays-reported-to-kc-streetcar-after-incident-involving-van
ReplyDeleteYour denizen is one of those lying godless anti-train commies who thinks the toy train stole sewer lines to make the rails and kills Hitler's babies. I have personally witnessed lines of people stretching as far south as Westport Road at midnight waiting to take their 2.2-mile ride on the eighth wonder of the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree: banning auto traffic on Main Street would encourage more people to ride the streetcar. Expanding that idea, banning auto traffic everywhere will make streetcars indispensable, so the voters will have to approve new lines. Ka-ching!
ReplyDeleteBe careful trolley boy will go berserk when he reads this this morning.
ReplyDeleteFree ride for tourist needs to come to an end. Trolley needs to be charging fares so it is self supporting.
ReplyDeleteToot toot. Echo echo echo. Crickets. Clunk.
ReplyDeleteVirtually empty streetcars go by my loft all day long on weekdays. Maybe David Johnson can come up with some kind of scheme to get ridership up. This City can not support empty streetcars.
ReplyDeleteNah . The city will be spending more money here soon when the expansion to the plaza begins.
ReplyDelete9:10: You are one of those who think the streetcar kills babies and sucks up all the steel in America for its rails. The city is not supporting the empty cars. The people who live in and voted for the TDD are. Well, and the people who own property in the TDD but don't live there and couldn't vote on the toot toot. Well, and... . Come to think of it we ARE supporting it, aren't we?
ReplyDeleteNo no no according to Da Star the Streetcar is setting records in ridership!
ReplyDeleteAllll Aboard!!! pting pting pting Mother Of GOD!!!! Theyre shooting at the train!!!! ON OR OFF MOFO'S !!! CHUGA CHUGA CHUGA
ReplyDeleteDon't upset Crooked Dave now people.
ReplyDeleteI hope 717 is joking.
ReplyDeleteim quite sure he is
ReplyDeletei'm not from kc been here for about a month.I haven't road the street car,because why would i? like i said ,im new here but where i come from street cars and subways actually take you somewhere.this fuckin thing goe's back n fourth up and down one road ??
ReplyDeletei can't for the life of me figure out what it is for?? im dead serious.did kc vote for this thing?
is it for kids to ride and look at big buildings? im an adutlt and i cant imagine ,even if i was from some rural area,getting any thrill from riding the thing.
i cant understand what this street car is supposed to accomplish .i mean it doesn't go anywhere.. wtf were you people thinking when you voted to spend all that money on something that goe's NOWHERE ??? I am not trying to dis anyone.I am just genuinly perplexed about the whole thing,
11:41 AM - there was a vote in the streetcar district only and it was rigged. It was a mail-in ballot and your vote had to be notarized. Amazing that the State of Missouri would approve such nonsense. Then there was a City wide vote for expansion and it was defeated by a large margin. The voters in KCMO are not stupid.
ReplyDeleteMany locals share your perplexity, 11:41am.
ReplyDeleteYou have to understand that the big push for this fiasco came from a couple people who grew up in rural Kansas (Cow Pie, Ks; Pop 816) and imagine KCMO as a great metropolis challenging New York, Paris, and who know where else.
Just understand that downtown KCMO is our local publicly-subsidized poor man's version of Disney World and it will all begin to make at least a little sense.
"did kc vote for this thing?"
ReplyDeleteNope. Mensa boy and Trolley boy engineered a mail-in vote that garnered about 350 yes votes from people who live in (but do not necessarily own anything in) a gerrymandered TDD.
"and i cant imagine ,even if i was from some rural area,getting any thrill from riding the thing."
Mensa boy and Trolley boy are both from rural areas and may have read about the wonders of fixed rail transit. Neither realized how inconvenient the real thing is and why our great grandparents who were not from rural areas and had put up with streetcars all their lives were so anxious to convert to flexible non-fixed rail buses.
In other words, the unwashed rural rubes put one over on the city slickers.
well damn, thanks for some answers.corruption in the heartland,huh?
ReplyDeleteshameful,a train to nowhere..sounds like kcmo needs to clean house and tell the crooks to kick rocks.
In Kansas City, unfortunately the term "city slickers" refers to rain gear.
ReplyDeleteWild claims about being the arts, tech, entrepreneur, and who knows what else "capital of the country" may play well with the locals, but sophisticated doesn't describe Sly and the gang at 12th and Oak.
Empty vessels waiting for promises of legacies and glory at public expense is a more accurate description.
Yawn. You babies need to get some new material. Your desperation about the streetcar is just silly at this point. Pretty much everyone recognizes it's a success.
ReplyDelete^^^As defined by whom? Those who made money from building it? Those who will be paid to maintain and repair it? Inquiring minds want to know!
ReplyDeleteThey fake ridership numbers, pump up the hype, so the left-behind legions in Flyover America believe that everything is all fixed and that the financial crisis and the Great Recession were but a random and unrepeatable bump in the night that will never recur if they spend another $221 million for an extension.
ReplyDelete@3:06pm
ReplyDeletePretty much everybody considers the streetcar a success?
Sure hope your mom and dad are still helping you with your checkbook.
And, if the barista gig works out, maybe even a credit card soon.
How can a $100 million+ toy that has NO economic standards to meet not be considered a "success" by people with not a clue about municipal finance and no responsibility for anything?
The Kiddie Corps strikes again.
3:06 obviously has a personal stake in the trolly to nowhere
ReplyDeleteOf course if they build an extension that means they'll have to give developers 20 year tax free deals to build flimsy apartment rentals that also pay no taxes from Union Station to the Plaza.
ReplyDeleteCharge LOW prices...they will pay. They will still ride.
ReplyDeleteAll you people between crown center and the plaza, get ready to pay a hefty fee for your section of streetcar, $400-600 per household per year. choo choo coming your way whether you like it or not. Sly
ReplyDeleteOf course, 7:17 AM was joking. Did you see where he quoted the astronomical number of visitors to the area that Visit KC claims? We supposedly have almost twice the number of visitors to our City than what Denver has. The streetcar ridership numbers are vastly overstated.
ReplyDeleteWhen the facts don't agree with my uninformed opinion, them facts is wrong!
ReplyDeleteFacts? Trolley boy don't need no stinkin' facts!
ReplyDelete