Kansas City Streetcar

Kansas City, Missouri Downtown Streetcar

It has a cutesy map on its home page that shows the progress of construction: still mostly utility relocation. Construction started a few months ago, and it should be done by mid-October 2015.

I was in Kansas City all of last week, and there indeed has been construction started; though it is as said above, mostly utility relocation. The bridge going over I-670 already has the rails embedded, though, and the Main-Walnut Viaduct is closed and has a stack of rails laying down the length of it, presumably for storage.

I looked at a map and there is are a pair of stretches of track following different streets, so at each end or those stretches it sould be quite easy to place connecting track such that it could be used to turn the vehicles around. Also, the map suggests that platfroms will all be on the kerbside. In light of all this, will there be room for loops or wyes at both ends and all planned extensions?

Myrtone wrote:I looked at a map and there is are a pair of stretches of track following different streets, so at each end or those stretches it sould be quite easy to place connecting track such that it could be used to turn the vehicles around. Also, the map suggests that platfroms will all be on the kerbside. In light of all this, will there be room for loops or wyes at both ends and all planned extensions?

Not sure if there will be room for them, but since all modern streetcars have cabs on both ends, they will be unnecessary. All a driver would have to do is switch ends, turn a switch, and drive off.

Line opened 05 06 2016

Kansas City celebrates Grand Opening of KC Streetcar
Matt Stewart
FOX 5 KC
05 06 2016 8:18 AM CDT
Updated 05 06 2016 01:42 AM CDT

After years of planning, setbacks, hard work, KC celebrates streetcar grand opening
Lynn Horsley
05 06 2016 11:34 AM CDT
The Kansas City Star

Grew up in Kansas City in the 1960s, moved to Washington DC area in the 1970s, moved to Delmarva in the early 1990s.

Cool! The all volunteer organized and operated World Science Fiction Convention ("Worldcon") will take place over a five day period this coming August. Several thousand attendees, including myself, are expected. Will definitely take a ride on the new system! http://midamericon2.org/

Would I be able to take it from the Amtrak station to the Marriott on 12th near the convention center?

Streetcar’s robust ridership prompts added weekend service

Nearly three weeks after it opened, Kansas City’s downtown streetcar ridership counts continue to surpass projections despite two service interruptions this week.

The system so far has tallied 128,760 rider trips and is averaging more than 6,400 trips per day, according to figures provided Thursday to the Streetcar Authority board of directors.

“The numbers have far exceeded where we thought we would start,” Tom Gerend, Streetcar Authority executive director, told the board. He said original projections were for an average of 2,700 riders per day.

Surprises include higher ridership than expected on weekends and into the night.

The weekend numbers prompted the board to vote to increase the vehicle use on Sundays. The system had anticipated using two vehicles on Sundays, but that number will be boosted to three vehicles during the day on Sundays through Labor Day.

Since my favorite restaurant is right on Main Street...

It's working.

electricron wrote:

Myrtone wrote:I looked at a map and there is are a pair of stretches of track following different streets, so at each end or those stretches it sould be quite easy to place connecting track such that it could be used to turn the vehicles around. Also, the map suggests that platfroms will all be on the kerbside. In light of all this, will there be room for loops or wyes at both ends and all planned extensions?

Not sure if there will be room for them, but since all modern streetcars have cabs on both ends, they will be unnecessary. All a driver would have to do is switch ends, turn a switch, and drive off.

But if there is room for them, a cab at the other end and doors on the other side won't be necessary.

Loops are fine if you keep your vehicle length short, you have enough plots of land and there aren't a lot of nearby residents to object to the shrieking where curve radius is tight. Toronto's loops are looking mighty cramped in places with 30m Flexity vehicles replacing 23m ALRVs.

Length of articulated vehicles, or any coupled sets, has nothing to do with it. In fact, it couldn't conceivably have anything to do with it. Note that European systems with a minimum curve radius of as much as 18 meters (at least outside depots) may still use looped unidirectional running.

Moderator’s Note: enough with loops and single-end operation, in this thread and others. If a system considers single-ended equipment seriously, we can talk.