By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
September 2, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Last week, the Kansas City City Council learned the streetcar delivery delay won’t be as long as originally thought.

At last week’s business session meeting, council members were treated to the same presentation on the streetcar project the last council heard in July before they left office. However, at that time, it wasn’t known that the delivery of the first car would be delayed. Along with learning about construction progress, comparison costs with other streetcars around the country, and the economic development spurned from the starter line, the new council learned that the first streetcar will be delivered on Oct. 29, 2015. The original delivery date was in September.

Ralph Davis, deputy director of the city’s Public Works Department, recapped his trip to New York, where he and Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, spent a couple days at the vehicle manufacturer CAF USA, Inc.’s streetcar plant.

“They had given us a schedule in July that wasn’t acceptable to us,” Davis said. “We told them we don’t like this, it causes us problems and we can’t have delays like this.”

Along with seeing the progress of streetcar one, Davis also learned how far along streetcars two, three and four are, but wouldn’t give the council a timeline for their delivery.

“We’re still not satisfied with the schedules for two, three and four,” Davis said.

During his presentation, Davis showed the council photos of the streetcars, what they look like on the inside and the placement of various amenities. He also explained how Kansas City is going to better work with the manufacturer to better progress production. Through negotiations, the manufacturer has agreed to add a second shift to increase productivity, hire additional skilled workers and will hold weekly conference calls with city officials for weekly updates.

“We’re going to monitor them,” Davis said. “We want to make sure they do exactly what they said they were going to do, that they work with us and that they involve us in the problem solving. We want to move [the process] along. We don’t want to have other things to crop up.”

When pressed for a total completion Sherri McIntyre, director of Public Works, joked they’re still shooting for Spring 2016, but reminded the council that Spring lasts until June 21. After the presentation, First District Council woman Heather Hall asked for an update on the fines the city is charging CAF USA, Inc. Davis explained the fine started at $1,000 a day for streetcar one, with an additional $500, separately, for cars two, three and four. There have also been late fees for non-delivery of spare parts, as well.

“At this point, they’re behind on every aspect,” Davis said, adding the total amount of late fees is $3,300 a day, which is capped at $1.2 million. “Once they start delivering things, that number will be reduced.

Additional Streetcar news

The Kansas City Streetcar Authority [KCSA] also announced last week they are partnering with Kansas City Area Transportation Authority [KCATA] for regional transit support and services. At the August meeting of the KC Streetcar Authority Board of Directors, Gerend, executive director of the authority, and Joe Reardon, CEO and President of the KCATA, briefed the KC Streetcar Authority on the plan for shared services.

The KCATA will provide paratransit service, otherwise known as “Share-A-Fare” service, for eligible riders in the streetcar service area that can’t independently use the streetcar system because of a disability. In the event that streetcar service is interrupted for an extended period of time, the KCATA, in coordination with the KCSA, will employ bus bridge services in order to transport riders to their destinations.

In November 2014, RideKC was born, the new Greater Kansas City Transit brand, which includes both the KCATA and the KC Streetcar. It’s under this partnership, along with other transit-related agencies, that a regional brand was created to unify the regional transit system and serve as an umbrella for all modes of transportation operating in the greater Kansas City area.

In a statement released to the press, Gerend said the partnership reinforces their desire to maximize the efficiency of streetcar operations, “while helping to support the advancement of a seamless, world-class regional transit system.”

As part of this partnership, the KCATA will provide various services to KC Streetcar operations, including:

• Inclusion of KC Streetcar into KCATA regional radio operations.

• Inclusion of KC Streetcar in KCATA’s Regional Call Center Passenger Information Hotline

• Federally Required ADA Complementary Paratransit Service

• On-Request Safety Oversight Assistance

• On-Request Bus Bridge Services

• On-Request Technical and Operations Support Services

Once the streetcars are operational, the KCATA will provide streetcar schedule and arrival information to callers through their Regional Call Center. This information will also be displayed on the real-time arrival signs and digital kiosks located at a majority of the downtown streetcar stops. In the same press release, Reardon noted that the streetcar is a significant addition to the transit landscape in the Kansas City region.

“This cooperative agreement furthers our efforts to enter into strong partnerships to provide a more seamless, enhanced and multimodal transit system for residents throughout Kansas City,” Reardon said.