HUE AMERICA INSIGHTS
THE RED LINE
IS TURNING GREEN
Part One · The Line and What It Could Carry
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THE TRACK RECORD
Part One The Line and What It Could Carry
Kansas City chose a preferred streetcar route east to 18th & Vine on July 28, 2026. This is the case as it currently stands: what it would cost, who is building it, what the existing line has already generated, and what an east-west connection could mean for the city, the district and the people who visit both.
PUBLIC MEETING NO. 2 · JULY 28, 2026
The Route They Chose
The Route
East on 18th Street from Main, with an option for double track to 18th & Paseo or a single-track loop at the east end.
The Price
$125–175 million in 2026 dollars, identical across all three alternatives studied.
The Study
$175,000, the feasibility-study budget set by the Streetcar Authority in 2025.
The Clock
Kicked off September 22, 2025. Two public meetings held. Final report due Fall 2026.
Main Street line · open18th & Vine · proposedTroost MAX bus
Main StGrand BlvdHWY 71Troost Ave18th & PaseoVine StWoodland
Service advisory Not yet funded. Stop locations are indicative, not final. A single-track loop remains an option at the east end.
18th & Paseo · The Terminus
New 30,000 sq ft Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, The Pennant Marriott Tribute hotel with 80 rooms, and the Buck O'Neil Research Center.
A Short Walk East
American Jazz Museum, Gem Theater and Boone Theater along the 18th Street pedestrian mall.
THE COST
What $125–175 Million Buys
Two sources have built every mile of rail in this city: competitive federal grants and property owners inside a district taxing themselves. Both are in play here. Neither has been committed.
$125–175M
Published range, identical across all three alignments.
$50.8M
Federal Capital Investment Grant for the Main Street extension, plus a $14.2M BUILD grant for Riverfront.
5.7 miles
Length of the system after the October 2025 Main Street extension. Every mile runs north-south.
Final report
Technical work, screening analysis and public input. Due Fall 2026.
Financial plan
Pursue funding for design, environmental review and construction.
TOD grant
Seek a Transit-Oriented Development planning grant and corridor land-use plan.
Delivery
Zoning changes, publicly-owned property and construction sequencing.
No funding source has been identified yet. That is the next phase, not a finished one.
THE PRECEDENT
What the Existing Line Has Generated
$5.21BTotal booked
Opening 2.9 new miles in October 2025 roughly doubled average weekday ridership and produced the busiest month in the system’s history a few weeks later.
ALREADY COMMITTED
What the Rails Would Serve
The corridor is not waiting for a streetcar. Revive the Vine has fifteen published projects, most already in the ground.
Parade Park
510 co-op units becoming 1,100+ homes.
The Parker
48 units over ground-floor commercial.
One Nine Vine Phase 2
Mixed use, construction starts late 2026.
NLBM Campus + The Pennant
At the terminus and still seeking funding.
Boone Theater
Reopened May 1, 2026.
18th Street Pedestrian Mall
Complete May 2026.
18th & Lydia Garage
470 spaces, opened May 2026.
American Jazz Museum
Renovation funded February 2026.
Sum of published Revive the Vine project costs, excluding the separate MoDOT I-70 rebuild.
One gap at the end
The campus at the eastern terminus is the single Revive the Vine project listed as still seeking funding.
ECONOMIC GENERATION
What the Move East Could Produce
No ridership forecast, visitor-capture estimate or revenue model appeared in the July 28 materials. The calculator below is transparent arithmetic, not a forecast.
$0$50
Illustrative annual corridor spending$7.5MBased on 300,000 annual visitors
Residents
More than a thousand funded homes, each a household spending locally and riding fare-free.
Development
The existing line booked $5.21B over twelve years. Even a small fraction east is measured in hundreds of millions.
Employment
Design and construction dollars, then permanent hotel, museum and storefront jobs.
Every number on this page, including ours, is an estimate wearing a suit.
THE PARTICIPANTS
Who Is Building This
The Agencies
KC Streetcar Authority, led by executive director Tom Gerend; KCATA; and the City of Kansas City, Missouri.
The Consultant Team
Parson & Associates leads, supported by HNTB, Taliaferro & Browne, the Nash Group and Lathrop & Gage.
The Oversight Committee
Chaired by Councilwoman Melissa Patterson Hazley, who requested the study in 2023, with neighborhood, business, cultural and public-sector stakeholders.
AgenciesConsultantsInstitutions + Developers
Cultural
NLBM, American Jazz Museum, Gem Theater, Boone Theater and Buck O'Neil Research Center.
Development + Neighborhood
Grayson Capital, Vine Street Collaborative, 18th & Vine Developers LLC and Parade Park Homes.
WHAT IT COULD MEAN
One Line, Three Scales
For Kansas City
The first high-capacity east-west transit line, turning a north-south corridor into a grid and reconnecting districts separated by Highway 71.
For the Eastside
Fare-free service meeting Troost MAX and RideKC routes 18 and 25, while serving 1,100+ homes at Parade Park alone.
For a Tourist Destination
29.3 million annual visitors and $4.0 billion in annual visitor spending, yet only about 300,000 reach the Museums at 18th & Vine.
29.3MAnnual visitors
$4.0BVisitor spending
$280.5MLocal sales-tax revenue
~1%Who currently reach the district
“People know Kansas City for really three things: jazz, barbecue, and sports.”— Councilwoman Melissa Patterson Hazley
THE CONDITIONS
What Has to Be True
None of this is a prediction. Each item is a document or decision that either exists before the funding plan is adopted, or does not.
01A named local source
Identify and publish the committed local match. Federal grants have never covered a Kansas City extension alone.
02A published ridership model
Include a visitor-capture estimate and show the assumptions. A federal grant application will require both.
03The terminus funded
Close the NLBM campus gap on a public schedule. It is the destination the route was drawn toward.
04A coordinated sequence
Sequence the Paseo streetscape, I-70 rebuild and rail, and capitalize small-business support before the first shovel.
05Stops where the people are
Place stops where institutions and storefronts are, not where construction is cheapest.
06Fare-free preserved
Protect free boarding for residents and visitors through the funding structure chosen.
RECEIPTS
Sources & Method
The Study + Corridor
KC Streetcar Authority, KCATA and City of Kansas City public-meeting boards and project materials; City Revive the Vine project sheet; KC Streetcar economic-development and ridership reporting; federal grant announcements.
Tourism + Press
Visit KC annual reporting and museum attendance facts; reporting from Startland News, KSHB 41, FOX4 Kansas City and KCTV5.
Method note
Dollar figures are reported as published and are not independently audited. The report makes no causal claim that rail produced Greater Downtown development. The $414.6M sum and visitor-capture examples are arithmetic, not forecasts. Stop locations are indicative and have not been set. The cover is a concept image, not a design.
