As Americans across the United States were celebrating the country’s independence two weeks ago, it appears the Kansas City Streetcar wanted to join the fun when, on the Fourth of July, one of its rails moved (gently) skyward. Indeed, as a streetcar approached a bridge over I-670, the operator noticed the rail move a little, and then a lot. The streetcar’s progress halted and now the entire line will be shut down for what could be a month or more:
On Thursday, contractors began to dig into the rail bed on the I-670 bridge to fix a piece of steel track that emerged from the pavement earlier this week.
A streetcar driver noticed the problem on July 4, when the rail popped out of the ground as a train was approaching the bridge. Donna Mandelbaum, a spokesperson for the Streetcar Authority, said the driver was able to stop in time to avoid further damage or injury.
Since then the Streetcar Authority and its partners have been examining the bridge and rails to find out what caused the problem. Mandelbaum said the rail had likely bent because of thermal expansion.
Since then and in the meantime, service along the streetcar will be provided by buses which, if you’re familiar with what Show-Me Institute analysts have said about the city’s streetcar projects over the last decade, is fitting. Buses are faster, cheaper to set up, easier to reroute, and easier to keep in operation. Simply put, they’re better. That for a decade Kansas City pushed to build the line and later expand it despite its obvious drawbacks is a testament to the city’s commitment to dubious transit schemes in service to questionable economic development objectives.
Kansas City may not be alone among municipalities in the misguided effort to resurrect old-timey transit—hello St. Louis!—but the absurdity of using rails like this in Kansas City is accentuated by this tale, where four feet of broken track has shut down four miles of transit service for, likely, four weeks. For shame.
