Transit study recommends new express bus service to Kansas City International Airport

I talk about railroad connections here a lot, but that is typically an expensive undertaking. Regardless of the exact mode, it's important to create fast, frequent, and reliable transportation options between airports and downtown city centers. Airports serve a unique aspect of travel demand, and while much of that demand can be better served by high-speed rail, some of it is always going to be necessary via air.

Having enough express bus service to meet demand goes a long way toward reducing car and taxi-based traffic around airports. This preliminary plans for KCI are very affordable and should be extremely feasible to implement, as long as elected officials support it in the legislature.

The goal should really be 15-minute service, but 30-minute service is a fine start.

The study looked at demand for transit access to KCI from across the area, and the results pointed to two initial corridors:

• Downtown Kansas City, Missouri (with pick-up/drop-off options at Union Station or Convention Center area)
• Johnson County, Kansas, with a potential stop in Kansas City, Kansas.

Planners estimate the service would need to operate for 18 hours a day, seven days a week with a frequency of once every 30 minutes. Additional stops could eventually be added in Lee’s Summit, Independence, Liberty and Leavenworth.

Each of the different options would have different cost structures. Planners estimate up-front costs (busses, signage, etc) would range between $6 to $8 million, with an additional $3-6 million needed for annual operating costs depending on the route.

The cheapest route with potentially the highest demand would be the downtown KCMO to KCI route. Officials estimate the total cost to launch and operate the route with a stop at Union Station at roughly $51 million. A route from Overland Park’s Convention Center with a stop at Indian Springs in KCK would cost nearly $80 million over a 10-year span.