Mayor on streetcars: ‘We’re making history here in Kansas City’
The new Downtown streetcars may still be two years from roll out, but we got our first peek at them during a special ceremony during First Friday festivities.
According to reporter Lynn Horsley’s coverage in The Kansas City Star:
“A life-size image of a new streetcar and a mockup of a streetcar shelter helped enliven the corner of 1900 Main St. as revelers started to gather in the Crossroads for October’s First Friday’s celebration.
‘“We’re very excited,” said Amanda DeLeon, who lives in a condo at 18th Street and Baltimore Avenue and brought her 5-year-old daughter, Coco, to the event. “We’ll be able to take it to the grocery story, the library, the City Market.”
“The city expects the streetcars to be operating by fall 2015 on the 2-mile route, running from the River Market to close to Union Station, primarily on Main Street.
“A large crowd gathered to view the displays and think about how the Main Street corridor will be changed by the streetcars.
‘“We’re making history here in Kansas City,” Mayor Sly James said, describing the streetcars as “the most significant transportation project in this city in the last 50 years.”
“City officials unveiled renderings of what the streetcars will look like, although the actual colors have not yet been chosen.
“The vehicle of choice is the URBOS 3 Platform Vehicle, built by CAF and manufactured in Elmira, N.Y. CAF has extensive rail transit experience in both the U.S. and Europe.
“Public Works Director Sherri McIntyre said it made sense financially and in terms of the schedule to piggyback on a contract Cincinnati already has with CAF.
“The city expects to buy four streetcars at a total cost of about $20 million. Each car will hold about 145 passengers. They will take about 18 months to be built after the contract is approved.”
The Star expanded its examination of the streetcar over the weekend with an opinion piece written by Yael Abouhalkah
“…just the promise of streetcars to come already is galvanizing plenty of downtown development near the two-mile line that will run from River Market to Union Station.
“Most notably, more than 1,500 new or renovated apartment units are planned in buildings on or near Main Street. These units, if all come to fruition, could be completed by 2015, amounting to tens of millions of dollars worth of private investment.
“That’s an encouraging vote of confidence in not just the streetcars but also in the continued revival of downtown.”
