Commuter rail plan vote won't be in November

Jackson County voters will not see a commuter rail measure on the November ballot after all, but County Executive Mike Sanders said Wednesday he’s optimistic that his Kansas City Regional Rapid Rail plan is moving ahead swiftly.

Hurdles are being overcome and, in some cases, lowered. If things fall the right way, Eastern Jackson County commuters could be riding downtown by late 2015, roughly the same time Kansas City hopes to have a streetcar system running from Union Station to the River Market. Officials see those two systems working hand in glove.

“It changes our city,” Sanders said.

The holdup on the election – likely for a one-cent county sales tax – is that Sanders wants all the details with the railroads whose tracks would be used worked out and the voters presented with a completed package.

“It’s a commitment we made in the very beginning,” Sanders said, adding, “We want to do it right, not just quick.”

Sanders called those railroads – Kansas City Southern, the Union Pacific and the Kansas City Terminal Railway – “great partners” and said the negotiations continue to go well and that the railroads want to see the plan happen.

Sanders rolled out his plan – largely drawn up by TranSystems principal Jim Terry – in the fall of 2009 with a simple concept: Use existing lines, saving the cost of building and the years it can take to get environmental permits. Terry and Sanders outlined six spokes coming together at Union Station, reaching to Eastern Jackson County, Grandview, the airport, the Kansas Speedway area, and Liberty/Kearney. The cost was a little more than $1 billion. They also stressed that this is about getting people to work – to the benefit of workers, companies and congested highways – more than about getting to the ballgame, race day or a Sprint Center concert.

Getting down to details, the county and other officials more than a year ago began intensive study of the first two lines that would be built – both from Kansas City into Eastern Jackson County.

One would use the Kansas City Southern line through Independence, Blue Springs, Grain Valley and Oak Grove. That line has only a handful of trains daily. The railroad has long supported the plan. There would be three stops in Independence and one each in Blue Springs, Grain Valley and Oak Grove.

The second would use to the old Rock Island line running south out of Kansas City west of the stadiums into Raytown and Lee’s Summit. The UP owns that line today. (The third railroad, the Kansas City Terminal Railway, is a consortium of railroads with 85 miles of track that several railroads use.)

Sanders underlined that he understands the railroads’ desire to see the commuter rail system built but also the need to balance that with long-term – Sanders said 100 years – business models.

“These are business-changing decisions, long term, for the railroads,” he said.

That also has to be balanced against the fact that although the railroads would be paid for the use of their tracks, that’s little compared with their real business: hauling grain, coal, auto and other cargo across the country.

“They’re not going to make money on this transaction,” Sanders said.

One of the biggest issues concerns Union Station. Those tracks – think of the triple set of tracks you see from I-70 near the huge old Sears, now the Postal Service building, as you head into the Benton Curve – are very busy. Initial plans called for using those tracks to get to Union Station.

Then early this year officials switched to an alternative: Loop north instead through the East Bottoms and come out at the River Market. What’s the difference, the logic went, if you start at one end of Kansas City’s streetcar or another? A commuter in Blue Springs would still ride the commuter rail, then switch to a streetcar to get to the office at, let’s say, H&R Block in the Power & Light District.

But Sanders and his team still prefer Union Station and several weeks ago said that option was back. Sanders reiterated Wednesday that’s still his hope.

County’s advantages

Sanders and his team have also caught what he sees as another big break.

The federal government has now waived the requirement for an “alternatives analysis,” that is, a detailed examination of all options and financial, social and environmental costs and benefits. That’s the process that the county is more than a year into for the Independence/Blue Springs and Raytown/Lee’s Summit lines. Local governments had to do that – and often re-do their homework until Washington was happy – to get in line for federal funding.

But this summer the rules “literally changed right before our eyes,” Sanders said.

The county’s alternatives analysis, which had been set to wrap up this summer with a final recommendations, still has value, Sanders said.

“It’s great pre-engineering work for us to do,” he said.

Add to the rule change the fact that the Sanders plan relies on existing tracks instead of new ones – “We don’t have to jump through the hoops that most cities do,” he said – and that commuter rail is far cheaper per mile than building, say, a light rail system from scratch and you get what Sanders calls a game changer. It probably shaves two years off the process, he said.

Other cities have been at the mass-transit funding game for a long time and are used to doing things the old way, he said. Kansas City is fairly new to the federal table – late actually, Sanders and others say – but Sanders sees an edge there.

“Changing the rules is only going to be to our benefit,” he said.

Sanders and his team have pushed an admittedly aggressive schedule on a topic that’s a lot like a marathon.

“But I want to be a sprinter,” he said.

If the tax goes on the April ballot and the voters say yes, the money would be collected starting six months later. Then in two years, Sanders said, trains could be rolling.

Although commuter rail – that’s heavier than light rail and runs on standard gauge tracks like a coal train or Amtrak – would be the backbone of an enhanced metro system, officials also are looking at “enhanced” buses, streetcars and maybe even light rail line or two.

Also, the Kansas City Southern line runs just north and east of Centerpoint Medical Center, and a stop in that area is planned. Then, officials say, maybe Independence could run a looped bus service, getting people to the Independence Events Center, Bass Pro Shops and other stores and the Children’s Mercy East, which opens this fall. That also eases access, proponents say, for a Mavericks hockey game for someone coming from Liberty or Grandview.

Sanders has pressed his case before thousands of people – chambers of commerce, transit activists, others – since 2009, and several Eastern Jackson County mayors have joined in. Blue Springs Mayor Carson Ross, Sanders and others on Monday testified to a state blue-ribbon transportation committee about roads and bridges but also made the case for commuter rail, though little if any state aid is envisioned at this point.

“You’re going to see a revitalization of downtown Blue Springs,” Ross said when contacted Wednesday about commuter rail.

Eventually, Sanders said, he’s confident the entire six spokes will get built. Terry once said that would mean a ride from the Blue Springs to the terminal of your choice at KCI – in 40 minutes and for about $3.50. Sanders also said Johnson County and other areas not currently on board would see the success of the system and the wisdom on joining in.

For now, the focus is on the first two lines.

“Things are moving along very, very well,” Sanders said.