NEWS RELEASE

July 14, 2010

Contacts:
Jody Ladd Craig, Public Affairs Director, jcraig@marc.org, 816/701-8241
Tom Gerend, Asst. Transportation Director, tgerend@marc.org, 816/701-8303

Regional partnership submits joint application for federal transit planning funds

Earlier this week, the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) submitted a joint application for $2 million in federal transit planning funds on behalf of a partnership of Jackson County, Mo., Kansas City, Mo. (KCMO), and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) and itself. If successful, the grant would allow the group to study the feasibility of a combined urban streetcar and commuter rail transit network and to formalize preferred transit service options.

The study will build on past systems-planning work conducted by MARC, KCATA, Kansas City and Jackson County and will evaluate the pros and cons of bus rapid transit, streetcar and commuter rail in several corridors and examine the needs for a downtown KCMO circulator. This type of study is a required step in pursuing federal funds to support capital investments in transit services.

The corridors that would be evaluated include:

  1. an I-70 commuter alignment heading east from Union Station, running in a shared corridor, to approximately the I-70/I-435 interchange, where it then runs east along I-70 through the cities of Independence, Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Oak Grove and Odessa.

  2. a Rock Island alignment southeast of downtown, generally along Missouri Route 350, and specifically along the former Rock Island railroad right of way (not currently in railroad service) through the communities of Raytown, Lee's Summit, Greenwood and Pleasant Hill.

  3. a downtown KCMO circulator system connecting Crown Center and Union Station with the Crossroads District, Downtown Kansas City, and the River Market area.

Further details of the grant can be found in the application at: www.kcsmartmoves.org/pdf/JacksonCountyKCRegionalAlternativesAnalysisApplication.pdf

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