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Jackson County’s hopes for a commuter rail system keep coming into sharper focus, as advocates described it on Monday.
Plans for the first two lines – one through Independence, Blue Springs and Grain Valley, one through Lee’s Summit – should be in place by May. Meanwhile, Congress is expected to approve a major round of transportation funding by the middle of this month, so officials will have a better idea of how much federal money would be available to begin building the system.
“We really have an opportunity here with transit,” County Executive Mike Sanders told county legislators on Monday.
Sanders has been pushing the $1.1 billion Kansas City Regional Rapid Rail plan for two years. It would have six spokes meeting at Union Station. In addition to the first two in Eastern Jackson County, lines would run to Grandview, the Kansas Speedway area, Kansas City International Airport and the Liberty/Kearney area.
By next May, local officials will have details on the two Eastern Jackson County routes ready for federal officials to begin reviewing for funding. Those plans would also include local funding. Officials have said a public subsidy would be needed but haven’t yet laid out specifics.
Local officials have been holding public forums, including one last month in Independence, to lay out alternatives and ask citizens for their thoughts. Tom Gerend, assistant director of transportation for the Mid-America Regional Council, said comments at those meetings have been “almost exclusively positive.” More public meetings are planned in the weeks ahead.
Sanders has said recently he’s more optimistic than ever about getting federal money to build the system. While some other cities and states are dropping out of the competition for the money, his Rapid Rail plan relies on the area’s abundance of underused and unused rail lines, a sharply less expensive and less time-consuming approach than acquiring land, rights of way and environmental permits to build new lines.
County Legislator Greg Grounds, R-Blue Springs, asked for updates as the process goes along and said “ ... I think a lot of people are excited about the possibilities.”
Jackson County’s hopes for a commuter rail system keep coming into sharper focus, as advocates described it on Monday.
Plans for the first two lines – one through Independence, Blue Springs and Grain Valley, one through Lee’s Summit – should be in place by May. Meanwhile, Congress is expected to approve a major round of transportation funding by the middle of this month, so officials will have a better idea of how much federal money would be available to begin building the system.
“We really have an opportunity here with transit,” County Executive Mike Sanders told county legislators on Monday.
Sanders has been pushing the $1.1 billion Kansas City Regional Rapid Rail plan for two years. It would have six spokes meeting at Union Station. In addition to the first two in Eastern Jackson County, lines would run to Grandview, the Kansas Speedway area, Kansas City International Airport and the Liberty/Kearney area.
By next May, local officials will have details on the two Eastern Jackson County routes ready for federal officials to begin reviewing for funding. Those plans would also include local funding. Officials have said a public subsidy would be needed but haven’t yet laid out specifics.
Local officials have been holding public forums, including one last month in Independence, to lay out alternatives and ask citizens for their thoughts. Tom Gerend, assistant director of transportation for the Mid-America Regional Council, said comments at those meetings have been “almost exclusively positive.” More public meetings are planned in the weeks ahead.
Sanders has said recently he’s more optimistic than ever about getting federal money to build the system. While some other cities and states are dropping out of the competition for the money, his Rapid Rail plan relies on the area’s abundance of underused and unused rail lines, a sharply less expensive and less time-consuming approach than acquiring land, rights of way and environmental permits to build new lines.
County Legislator Greg Grounds, R-Blue Springs, asked for updates as the process goes along and said “ ... I think a lot of people are excited about the possibilities.”
