Kansas City — 2016 Opening Set

March 2015

Construction on Kansas City’s downtown street car line is nearly 50 percent complete as of March 2015 and should be finished by fall of this year. Then the new CAF Urbos articulated streetcars will undergo months of testing before passengers can begin riding the line in early 2016, the Kansas City Star reports.

“We’re shooting for the first quarter of the year,” Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Street car Authority, tells the Star. “The quicker we can open to the public, the better off we'll be.” Gerend says street car construction is on pace to be finished this fall. The first of four vehicles will arrive in September.

According to streetcar officials, the water/sewer work that required large, deep holes down Main Street and along the rest of the route is 88 percent complete. The remaining work is mostly on Main between Ninth and 12th streets downtown.

Track work is 47 percent complete, and the overhead wire electrical work is 51 percent finished. The Singleton Yard vehicle maintenance facility at Third and Holmes streets is 61 percent done.

Construction should begin in a few weeks on the first of 16 stations. Officials hope to have a celebration when that first stop is done in early April.