Kansas City Streetcar Drawing Crowds in First Three Months

With weekend riders leading the way, the Kansas City Streetcar is surpassing ridership expectations three months into its existence.

1 minute read

August 2, 2016, 9:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Kansas City Streetcar

Jason Doss / Flickr

"Kansas City’s downtown streetcar has recorded more than 550,000 rides since it launched nearly three months ago," reports Lynn Horsley. 

"Daily average ridership is 6,612," adds Horsley. "That’s an increase from the average daily ridership of 6,365 that had been recorded after two months, on July 5."

The average daily ridership is vastly outperforming projections. In fact, the streetcar was expected to attract 2,700 average daily riders. Streetcar officials do anticipate the possibility, however, that ridership will decline after the end of the summer and when the novelty of the system has worm off.

A key characteristic of the ridership numbers is the popularity of the line on the weekends. Saturday is proving the busiest day for the streetcar so far.

Friday, July 29, 2016 in The Kansas City Star

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