April 3, 2024
Season:    7

Tom Gerend and KC Streetcar contribute billions to Kansas City’s economy

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We kicked off 2024 with an episode with Rep. Earl Blumenauer–https://transit-unplugged.captivate.fm/portland-streetcar–who could be credited for the modern streetcar boom in America, and this week we see how streetcars actually drive billions in economic development in Kansas City. Streetcars aren’t just moving people and connecting the city in Kansas City, they are driving businesses like the aptly named Streetcar Grill which stands in what used to be a parking lot.

Tom Gerend has been part of the Kansas City streetcar project since the beginning, first as part of the planning organization that put the project in motion and now as Executive Director of KC Streetcar. For Tom, this streetcar network is his baby; it’s a project that creates a legacy for all of Kansas City. But that’s not where we start off the interview.

Historic Union Station in Kansas City was left to rot and ruin; almost demolished from disuse, but a ballot initiative brought it back to life and is now a landmark for the city. Union Station isn’t just a transportation hub for the streetcar and Amtrak, it’s a gathering place for the entire city. Tom took Paul for a tour of this architectural jewel and everything that’s inside, including a model train exhibit and a science museum!

From Union Station, Tom takes Paul on the streetcar to tell him all about the network and its contributions to the city. From low floors that make it easy for anyone to board to keeping the system fare-free, KC Streetcar is fast becoming integral to the city.

Paul and Tom finish up at the Streetcar Grill and talk more about his career, the plans for the streetcar network, and the economic benefits it’s brought to the city.

And if all of this sounds amazing, you can see it all on April 11th on Transit Unplugged TV! Make sure you subscribe on YouTube so you don’t miss this episode! https://www.youtube.com/@transitunplugged

In case you missed last week’s episode with KCATA CEO Frank White, give it a listen now to learn more about Kansas City and its transit system: https://transitunplugged.com/transit-unplugged-podcast/frank-white-iii-kcata-tod/

Additional music by Kemet the Phantom “Get Out” ft. The Pharoahs iTunes – https://goo.gl/JFk66P . Used with permission.

If you have a question or comment, email us at info@transitunplugged.com.

Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo and these fine folks:

  • Paul Comfort, host and producer
  • Julie Gates, executive producer
  • Tris Hussey, editor and writer
  • Tatyana Mechkarova, social media

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00:00 Tom Gerend and KC Streetcar contribute billions to Kansas City’s economy

00:03 Introduction from host Paul Comfort

00:21 Exploring the KC Streetcar with Tom Gerend

00:41 Union Station: A Historical Gem in Kansas City

01:09 On Board the KC Streetcar: A Ride Through Innovation

06:13 Expansion and Development: The Future of KC Streetcar

14:13 The No-Fare System: A Model for Urban Transit

22:43 At The Streetcar Grill

22:43 Economic Impact and Community Development

26:07 Reflecting on the Journey: Tom Gerend’s Vision for Kansas City

27:15 Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged

Transcript
Paul Comfort:

This is Transit Unplugged.

Paul Comfort:

I'm Paul Comfort.

Paul Comfort:

Welcome to the second part of our series from Kansas City.

Paul Comfort:

Last week we interviewed the KCATA CEO, or the Kansas City Area

Paul Comfort:

Transportation Authority, Chief Executive Officer, Frank White III.

Paul Comfort:

He told us all about the Transit Authority.

Paul Comfort:

Today we speak with Tom Gerend who is Executive Director of the KC Streetcar.

Paul Comfort:

It's a separate organization, but they run in concert with the

Paul Comfort:

Transit Authority and their routes do intersect at a number of places.

Paul Comfort:

The KC Streetcar is a great streetcar program that is in the middle of a major

Paul Comfort:

expansion and Tom tells us all about it.

Paul Comfort:

We start out at their fantastic Union Station.

Paul Comfort:

If you ever go to Kansas City, you've got to visit their Union Station.

Paul Comfort:

Not only is it got a fantastic infrastructure, I mean, they don't

Paul Comfort:

build buildings like this anymore.

Paul Comfort:

This big, grand hall that You know, reminds you of like a palace

Paul Comfort:

of some type, but they've got all kinds of things going on there.

Paul Comfort:

They've got a model train exhibit that is, amazing.

Paul Comfort:

And they have a science museum, an IMAX theater, all kinds of things.

Paul Comfort:

He tells us all about that and the history there.

Paul Comfort:

Then we go outside and get on board his sleek, modern

Paul Comfort:

streetcars, which are fantastic.

Paul Comfort:

we take a ride on them.

Paul Comfort:

He tells us all about the program and the program for expansion and

Paul Comfort:

how the streetcar program works.

Paul Comfort:

And then we get off for lunch at the Streetcar Cafe where he.

Paul Comfort:

Tells us some about his background and his vision for the system going forward.

Paul Comfort:

Hey, if you like what you hear and you want to see it, be sure to watch

Paul Comfort:

our companion video on April's episode of Transit Unplugged TV on YouTube.

Paul Comfort:

We show you behind the scenes of the streetcar and the transit authority.

Paul Comfort:

Plus the blues music, the jazz music, some of the great barbecue at Gates Barbecue,

Paul Comfort:

all the things you'd want to see about Kansas City and what ties it all together,

Paul Comfort:

their public transportation program.

Paul Comfort:

That's on our companion video, which is Transit Unplugged

Paul Comfort:

TV this month on YouTube.

Paul Comfort:

Now, jump on board the streetcar with me as we go inside Union

Paul Comfort:

Station with Tom Gerend.

Paul Comfort:

Alright I'm with Tom Gerend who is executive director of the Kansas

Paul Comfort:

City Streetcar and Tom we're in your fantastic union station.

Tom Gerend:

This place is amazing, isn't it?

Tom Gerend:

It's beautiful.

Tom Gerend:

Tell me about it.

Tom Gerend:

Well, this building is over a hundred years old.

Tom Gerend:

obviously it was formed really our third train station in Kansas City.

Tom Gerend:

The two others were destroyed by fire and flood.

Tom Gerend:

The railroads came together.

Tom Gerend:

over a hundred years ago to form this amazing building.

Tom Gerend:

It operated for decades, providing millions of people

Tom Gerend:

trips across the country.

Paul Comfort:

This was like a central terminus in the

Paul Comfort:

middle of the country, right?

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, one of the biggest train stations in the country, still one

Tom Gerend:

of the biggest I mean, it is phenomenal!

Tom Gerend:

Yeah.

Tom Gerend:

And, hard to believe in the 80s this building went into complete disrepair.

Tom Gerend:

It was vacated, almost demolished, until our regional leadership came

Tom Gerend:

together To fund a bi state tax to preserve and restore this amazing place.

Tom Gerend:

Well that's unusual, a bi state tax.

Tom Gerend:

It's the first time ever in Kansas City.

Tom Gerend:

We've not been able to replicate that model for anything else since that time.

Tom Gerend:

And, it's, the results have been phenomenal.

Tom Gerend:

This place is the front door for our city.

Tom Gerend:

It's the living room.

Tom Gerend:

It's where we celebrate.

Tom Gerend:

it's obviously where we connect, with public transportation and other.

Tom Gerend:

And your streetcars.

Tom Gerend:

And our streetcar.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Now we're just walking in this, what's this called, the Grand Hall?

Tom Gerend:

This is the Grand Hall of Union Station.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, this was the former waiting room for passengers who would be traveling across

Tom Gerend:

the country on dozens of rail lines that fed this station a hundred years ago.

Paul Comfort:

And for our listeners, it's a long Grand Hall.

Paul Comfort:

Picture something like, what is this, a football field long, something like that?

Paul Comfort:

Yeah, it's over a football field.

Paul Comfort:

And there's doors.

Paul Comfort:

All the way down, each of these doors, Tom, you were telling me,

Paul Comfort:

which, you would, that would be your train to go to Cucamonga, wherever.

Tom Gerend:

That would access the platform underneath the station.

Tom Gerend:

We have dozens of platforms under the station, so we could boarding

Tom Gerend:

dozens of trains at a time.

Tom Gerend:

Right underneath the station, each one of these doors would access that

Tom Gerend:

train platform for that destination.

Paul Comfort:

Amazing, and now it's like a big marble, auditorium

Paul Comfort:

almost, and you said all kinds of

Tom Gerend:

It's a cathedral, you know, we use it now to program concerts,

Tom Gerend:

major activity centers, think of the NFL draft, think of parades for World

Tom Gerend:

Series and Super Bowls, we celebrate all of those things right here.

Paul Comfort:

You told me all the NFL players were in here

Paul Comfort:

when you did the parade, this was kind of their waiting area?

Tom Gerend:

Right, this was sort of a waiting area for players and staff,

Tom Gerend:

but we use it in Christmas time, amazing decorations to bring the,

Tom Gerend:

and lights to bring the community out, celebrate, the beautiful Union

Tom Gerend:

Station and, some amazing attractions.

Tom Gerend:

There's also a science center.

Tom Gerend:

There's exhibits, rolling exhibits.

Tom Gerend:

Disney's coming.

Tom Gerend:

We're going to have a Disney exhibit here in a short period of time.

Tom Gerend:

so just really amazing use of this facility that has made, really been, you

Tom Gerend:

know, it's a postcard for Kansas City.

Tom Gerend:

Almost every picture that you see now has this building, centered front

Tom Gerend:

and center and it's for a reason.

Paul Comfort:

So, in addition to an active train station with Amtrak and with your

Paul Comfort:

streetcar, tell us about, like, we just walked through an amazing, trains, they're

Paul Comfort:

not toy trains, what do you call them?

Tom Gerend:

Well, yeah, model trains.

Tom Gerend:

Model trains, yeah.

Tom Gerend:

So there's, like I said, part of the education, there's In the Science Center,

Tom Gerend:

but also up here is just different aspects of our railroading history as a

Tom Gerend:

city and as a region and the role that we played and served in connecting the

Tom Gerend:

country from East to West to really at a point right and now North to South.

Tom Gerend:

right in the middle of the country, so it's cool, the kids love it, but

Tom Gerend:

there's also a lot of things to do, and importantly, it's the jumping off

Tom Gerend:

point really symbolizes how our city was connected to the country, and now it's

Tom Gerend:

a centerpiece into how we're connecting ourselves with streetcar expansion

Tom Gerend:

and transit service within the region.

Tom Gerend:

And you got an IMAX theater here?

Tom Gerend:

We've got an IMAX theater, a planetarium, all sorts of fun stuff for people to do.

Tom Gerend:

So if you come

Paul Comfort:

to Kansas City, you gotta come visit

Tom Gerend:

the Union Station.

Tom Gerend:

First stop.

Paul Comfort:

All right.

Paul Comfort:

So we're at Union Station, which is the terminus, the ending

Paul Comfort:

terminus of your, streetcar, right?

Tom Gerend:

That's correct.

Tom Gerend:

the current location is, the southern terminus of our 2.

Tom Gerend:

2 mile streetcar.

Tom Gerend:

It's also going to be the jumping off point.

Tom Gerend:

For our three and a half mile extension south to the University of Missouri

Tom Gerend:

Kansas City in the Country Club Plaza.

Paul Comfort:

Is that what you just had a groundbreaking on?

Tom Gerend:

No, that's a different project.

Tom Gerend:

Okay, tell me about that.

Tom Gerend:

That's the northern extension which is really taking off from

Tom Gerend:

the River Market on the North End down to Berkeley Riverfront Park.

Tom Gerend:

And amazing things that are happening there with a new women's soccer stadium,

Tom Gerend:

thousands of new residential developments activating along our riverfront.

Tom Gerend:

We had turned our river, our backs to the river for a long time.

Tom Gerend:

We're here at the station talking about the impacts of railroads.

Tom Gerend:

We're also right on the Missouri River.

Tom Gerend:

It's Lewis and Clark.

Tom Gerend:

It's where our city was founded for years.

Tom Gerend:

It was a dumping ground, a literal dumping ground.

Tom Gerend:

We're now activating it with development with beautiful park and trail systems.

Tom Gerend:

And pretty soon in two short years, we're going to have a streetcar

Tom Gerend:

connection right to the riverfront.

Tom Gerend:

and all those great things that are happening on the Northern side.

Tom Gerend:

So together, those projects really bookend each other, extending our

Tom Gerend:

current system north and south.

Tom Gerend:

We'll be growing our system from 2.

Tom Gerend:

2 miles to 6.

Tom Gerend:

5 miles long, and it really will be through the densest, residential

Tom Gerend:

neighborhoods, connecting the largest employment centers in our city, and

Tom Gerend:

really will serve as a spine for a regional transit system that's

Tom Gerend:

multi modal, not just streetcar connecting, bus, paratransit service,

Tom Gerend:

regional services, and obviously Amtrak here right at the station.

Paul Comfort:

All right, Tom, we're outside the amazing Union

Paul Comfort:

Station, and you've got some construction going on right here.

Paul Comfort:

What's happening?

Tom Gerend:

Yes, we do.

Tom Gerend:

So we're at our southern terminus of the downtown starter line,

Tom Gerend:

and we're looking south at our Main Street Extension project.

Tom Gerend:

We're getting ready to actually construct a, crossover here in

Tom Gerend:

the middle of the intersection.

Tom Gerend:

this will be where, the three and a half mile southern extension will be.

Tom Gerend:

connects with our existing 2.

Tom Gerend:

2 mile project over the course of the next number of months.

Tom Gerend:

So this is where we're marching south and this is right where that connection

Tom Gerend:

of the new and the old will be happening right here in front of Union Station.

Paul Comfort:

All right, and so this is where your construction is going on.

Paul Comfort:

Now what's all the rail that's already there?

Tom Gerend:

So this is old streetcar rail that we're pulling out of

Tom Gerend:

the ground as we're building new.

Tom Gerend:

The three and a half mile southern extension is connecting to the old and the

Tom Gerend:

symbolism really is not lost on anybody.

Tom Gerend:

The construction guys in particular, our city was built around streetcar system.

Tom Gerend:

We had over 300 miles of streetcars connecting

Tom Gerend:

development, leading development.

Tom Gerend:

Our city was really built around transportation and transit

Tom Gerend:

and streetcar infrastructure.

Tom Gerend:

And so the fact that we're pulling out infrastructure that's 100 plus

Tom Gerend:

years old, laying new infrastructure that's going to be here for decades

Tom Gerend:

and generations to come, reconnecting ourselves in that very same way, with

Tom Gerend:

the same kind of power is again, not lost on anybody who's been involved.

Tom Gerend:

Really a symbolic and meaningful physical reconnection for our

Tom Gerend:

city and it's happening right here in front of Union Station.

Paul Comfort:

So Tom, we just stopped by.

Paul Comfort:

Stepped on your streetcar.

Paul Comfort:

By the way, this is beautiful.

Tom Gerend:

How old are these cars?

Tom Gerend:

Well, these cars, we've been in operation just about 8 years now.

Tom Gerend:

So these are 8 years old, we have, we started with 4, we now have 6.

Tom Gerend:

We're buying 8 more cars, the same model, CAF Urbos 3, to support the

Tom Gerend:

expansion of the system and really the maintenance and the shortening of our

Tom Gerend:

headways on the existing alignments.

Tom Gerend:

What's your current headways?

Tom Gerend:

So we're running 10 to 12 minutes right now, 7 days a

Tom Gerend:

week, pretty much all day long.

Tom Gerend:

So.

Tom Gerend:

Wow, that's awesome.

Tom Gerend:

Frequency and coverage of hours is really important.

Tom Gerend:

It's a lesson learned and when we started this system, it was

Tom Gerend:

designed and intended to be a real transportation connector for downtown.

Tom Gerend:

This wasn't a novelty, it wasn't nice to have, it was a fundamental

Tom Gerend:

transportation and our ridership and the response from the community has

Tom Gerend:

really demonstrated that to the truth.

Tom Gerend:

So these three cars are, again, CAF Urbos 3.

Tom Gerend:

they're 78 feet long.

Tom Gerend:

they can hold About 220 people, AW3 are fully loaded and running every 10 minutes.

Tom Gerend:

We can carry a lot of people downtown.

Tom Gerend:

We're averaging over 5, 000 passenger trips a day, right now, post COVID

Tom Gerend:

and, continuing to grow year over year.

Tom Gerend:

So some days down here, depending on what's happening downtown, we're

Tom Gerend:

carrying 15 or 18, 000 trips in a single day on a two mile system.

Tom Gerend:

So you can see why we needed more than four cars when we started.

Tom Gerend:

We didn't have sufficient capacity, and now we're extending

Tom Gerend:

the route in both directions.

Tom Gerend:

What's unique about these cars is they're 100 percent low floor.

Paul Comfort:

I see that.

Tom Gerend:

We're at level.

Tom Gerend:

So we have level boarding of the platform.

Tom Gerend:

So roll on, roll off with wheelchairs, bikes, and strollers,

Tom Gerend:

and no steps on board the car.

Tom Gerend:

It's really one of the only cars in North America that's 100 percent low floor.

Tom Gerend:

We're seeing a lot of this technology in terms of the vehicle platforms in

Tom Gerend:

Europe move to all low floor vehicles.

Tom Gerend:

We've been a little bit slower to adapt in the United States, and we're seeing the

Tom Gerend:

benefits, the accessibility benefits of this model and this design of the car, and

Tom Gerend:

so we're all in on, on growing this fleet, we love not just the accessibility, but we

Tom Gerend:

have four doors on each side of the car, so you'll notice some of our platforms are

Tom Gerend:

outside, some are center boarding, so we have four doors on both sides of the car,

Tom Gerend:

and it creates for great, accessibility.

Tom Gerend:

And, great utilization of our space inside the car.

Tom Gerend:

So many of the streetcars in the space are a little bit shorter.

Tom Gerend:

Many of them only have doors in the middle because they have steps on the end.

Tom Gerend:

And in those cases, those work too, but you don't have the same kind

Tom Gerend:

of capacity to get large numbers of people on and off quickly.

Tom Gerend:

like we have here with, with our contribution,

Paul Comfort:

we recently interviewed, Congressman Earl Blumenau.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Who talked about streetcar in Portland.

Paul Comfort:

Yeah.

Paul Comfort:

Is the streetcar movement, is it a movement?

Tom Gerend:

Should I call it that?

Tom Gerend:

Well, I think so.

Tom Gerend:

I think you've seen systems pick up, the lessons learned from Portland,

Tom Gerend:

the importance of street cars, the role they can serve in the

Tom Gerend:

broader transportation, framework.

Tom Gerend:

It's not the solution for every transit problem.

Tom Gerend:

You know, we're the first to say it works very well for what

Tom Gerend:

we were trying to accomplish.

Tom Gerend:

downtown with connectivity, mobility, economic development, it's not the mode

Tom Gerend:

that you would take 30 miles on a commuter express trip, right, you know, or, you

Tom Gerend:

know, a regional light rail line, might serve, or commuter line might serve, but

Tom Gerend:

for urban core, connections and activation and development, we've seen great

Tom Gerend:

benefits with this, and we're growing it, obviously we're tripling the size.

Tom Gerend:

The other thing I would say is we're seeing more and more

Tom Gerend:

of a blurring of the lines.

Tom Gerend:

So what makes streetcars is their street running.

Tom Gerend:

So we're running right now, getting ready to take off running in the middle

Tom Gerend:

of Main Street with mixed traffic.

Tom Gerend:

Yes, but as we plan on our Main Street extension, the vast majority

Tom Gerend:

of that alignment is going to be exclusive lane to transit only.

Tom Gerend:

We'll have access for some parking and for business access.

Tom Gerend:

But it's so it's not fully dedicated like you would see a light rail line,

Tom Gerend:

but it's a majority exclusive guideway.

Tom Gerend:

And so some of the operational characteristics are starting to move more

Tom Gerend:

towards light rail in many instances.

Tom Gerend:

as we think about how do we spread the reach of the system?

Tom Gerend:

How do we go faster?

Tom Gerend:

How do we move more people?

Tom Gerend:

And a lot of that isn't just vehicle technology, it's

Tom Gerend:

the operating environment.

Tom Gerend:

What are we doing in the street?

Tom Gerend:

What are we doing with signal priority?

Tom Gerend:

With shared lanes or dedicated lanes?

Tom Gerend:

and how we're managing the system in the public private way is a big part of that.

Paul Comfort:

Now I noticed when I came on I didn't have to pay anything.

Paul Comfort:

What's the deal with that?

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, so we are a no fare system.

Tom Gerend:

We've been no fare since we opened in 2016.

Tom Gerend:

And we're really, one of the reasons we can do that is we're funded through

Tom Gerend:

a revenue capture district, the transportation development district.

Tom Gerend:

And so we're really fortunate.

Tom Gerend:

We have a long term dedicated revenue stream.

Tom Gerend:

These businesses right outside the windows here are paying a property tax

Tom Gerend:

and a sales tax on their properties and on their transactions that funds some

Tom Gerend:

of our capital costs, but also a hundred percent of our operations and maintenance.

Tom Gerend:

And so what does that mean from a fare standpoint?

Tom Gerend:

It means the more people we push to those businesses, the more those people buy.

Tom Gerend:

Buy from those businesses, and guess what?

Tom Gerend:

The more we collect from sales tax, from those transactions, so it's, it

Tom Gerend:

really is a symbiotic relationship where we remove the barrier to use, we

Tom Gerend:

push people to the system, they go to businesses to support local businesses,

Tom Gerend:

and we collect revenue on the back end.

Tom Gerend:

I like to call it an indirect fare on the economic activity we're stimulating.

Tom Gerend:

So we're charging a fare, but we're charging it through the sale

Tom Gerend:

of goods at local businesses, and that's great for small business.

Tom Gerend:

And it's great for us to make it really easy to ride, we think the fare policy in

Tom Gerend:

our case, because our route is relatively short, right, the elasticity of the

Tom Gerend:

utilization and ridership is great, so if we were to charge a fare we might lose

Tom Gerend:

30 to 40 percent of the ridership because our trips are short, people have choices,

Tom Gerend:

and by allowing people the easy ability to hop on and hop off, guess what, they

Tom Gerend:

take more trips, they stay on longer, they explore downtown, less cars, and one

Tom Gerend:

of the things that's great about this.

Tom Gerend:

What happened is it connects four independent districts that

Tom Gerend:

were all like Union Station.

Tom Gerend:

We're here in the crossroads, but we're going to the downtown

Tom Gerend:

loop and then the city market.

Tom Gerend:

All of those were divided from the other by some sort of physical barrier.

Tom Gerend:

Interstate, a railroad track.

Tom Gerend:

They were independent.

Tom Gerend:

authentic, very interesting districts in their own right, but

Tom Gerend:

we'd be able to unify downtown by connecting those districts together.

Tom Gerend:

So Union Station is connected to downtown, the Crossroads Art District is connected,

Tom Gerend:

and the City Market . And so all of these things that are authentically Kansas City

Tom Gerend:

are now part of the unified experience that people can explore and enjoy.

Tom Gerend:

And it's one of the reasons why our system, we knew and thought we would.

Tom Gerend:

have great utilization and it's been better than we ever anticipated.

Tom Gerend:

What we didn't know is the psychological effect for how our

Tom Gerend:

system would redefine downtown.

Tom Gerend:

Literally, how people experience it, how they engage with it, where they visit.

Tom Gerend:

And we've highlighted all of these uniquely authentic Kansas City items.

Paul Comfort:

Such as a wrap with your football team on it.

Tom Gerend:

Well, that's actually, that's our base, that's our, sorry.

Tom Gerend:

Baseball, yeah.

Tom Gerend:

Excuse me.

Tom Gerend:

That's our soccer team, Sporting Kansas City, so we have, that's the men's team,

Tom Gerend:

and we're wrapping a car as we speak for the women's team with KC Current.

Paul Comfort:

Which is going to be, you're building a stadium, which is

Paul Comfort:

the only women's stadium in America?

Tom Gerend:

That's exactly right.

Tom Gerend:

On the Berkeley Riverfront, KC Current is building the only women's stadium

Tom Gerend:

in the country, purpose-built stadium.

Tom Gerend:

And, We're going to be connecting that with our northern extension of the

Tom Gerend:

riverfront extension project that we just broke ground ground a week ago.

Paul Comfort:

Here's an interesting

Tom Gerend:

question.

Tom Gerend:

Do you let bikes on here?

Tom Gerend:

We let bikes, strollers, wheelchairs, and that's the beauty of this vehicle

Tom Gerend:

platform is it's roll on and roll off.

Tom Gerend:

That's great, man.

Tom Gerend:

And we can carry a lot of people, a lot of wheelchairs, a lot of bikes.

Tom Gerend:

you know, having the capacity to move hundreds of people every few minutes,

Tom Gerend:

depending on our frequency at the time is, has been a great people to move for.

Tom Gerend:

this is the Power and Light District, so behind us is our arena here.

Tom Gerend:

I see that's the T Mobile Center, in the Power and Light District, which

Tom Gerend:

is a bar and restaurant district.

Tom Gerend:

I'm now fully connected, obviously, to, to the downtown experience and everything

Tom Gerend:

that we're doing on the existing project and, obviously on the expansion.

Tom Gerend:

We're getting ready next week, to, actually later this week,

Tom Gerend:

to launch the Big 12 basketball tournaments, the conference basketball

Tom Gerend:

tournaments, which is the big deal.

Tom Gerend:

Streetcar plays an important role connecting people to those venues.

Tom Gerend:

We have teams from all over the country coming in, women's and men's, over the

Tom Gerend:

course of the next two weeks, to enjoy all that Kansas City has to offer.

Tom Gerend:

And, we, we become a big part of that.

Paul Comfort:

Tom, it's amazing.

Paul Comfort:

How long have you been doing streetcars?

Tom Gerend:

Well, it's a good question.

Tom Gerend:

I actually started doing the planning for this downtown route back in 2010 with

Tom Gerend:

the MPO, Mid America Regional Council.

Tom Gerend:

This project took off and I came over in 2014 to spark the launch

Tom Gerend:

of the downtown starter line.

Tom Gerend:

So I've been with the streetcar full time capacity almost 10 years, but

Tom Gerend:

working on it even longer than that.

Tom Gerend:

And, obviously we've got a lot of pieces moving.

Tom Gerend:

The team has grown significantly beyond one, and that's exciting to see.

Paul Comfort:

So you're a proud papa, this is your baby, huh?

Tom Gerend:

It is a little bit, it is.

Tom Gerend:

There's a lot of people, as you know, these things only happen if

Tom Gerend:

everybody's growing in the same direction, and it takes a village, so.

Tom Gerend:

The KCATA, friend Frank White III over there has been instrumental

Tom Gerend:

partners, the City of Kansas City, Missouri has been partners.

Tom Gerend:

And then obviously all of our downtown rate payers who are paying into our

Tom Gerend:

district who voted to say we want a streetcar are the reason that

Tom Gerend:

we're here riding the system today.

Paul Comfort:

Now is the streetcar entirely in

Paul Comfort:

Missouri?

Tom Gerend:

It is, yeah.

Tom Gerend:

Right now, it's all exclusively in Kansas City, Missouri.

Tom Gerend:

south of the river.

Tom Gerend:

We have studies, looking North, that would conceivably connect

Tom Gerend:

into the City of North Kansas City.

Tom Gerend:

We also have East West studies that we're looking at, in partnership with

Tom Gerend:

the X Data that would conceivably look at connecting with KU Med Complex

Tom Gerend:

in Kansas, across the state line.

Tom Gerend:

So, obviously, regional travel patterns don't stop at the city line, state line,

Tom Gerend:

or the county line, and so, connecting the regional opportunities is key.

Tom Gerend:

And then, obviously, if we can't plan to grow All of the system, over

Tom Gerend:

time, inevitably, many of our trips that, that our regional employees

Tom Gerend:

and residents take are crossing those, jurisdiction lines, and so we

Tom Gerend:

gotta be planning for that as well.

Paul Comfort:

All right, Tom, we just stepped off.

Paul Comfort:

Beautiful streetcar, man.

Paul Comfort:

I got to tell you, it's state of the art.

Paul Comfort:

Beautiful.

Paul Comfort:

and I noticed you have catenary wires above.

Paul Comfort:

is the whole thing electric that way?

Paul Comfort:

Like, is it powered like that?

Tom Gerend:

The whole thing is powered

Tom Gerend:

overhead, with overhead catenary.

Tom Gerend:

and OCS.

Tom Gerend:

Car pantograph.

Tom Gerend:

we looked at some options, you know, when we started 10 years ago,

Tom Gerend:

technology on the battery side was still evolving and it wasn't to the point

Tom Gerend:

where we had enough confidence in it.

Tom Gerend:

we really haven't had any issues and frankly, the reliability, you know,

Tom Gerend:

we've got a pretty hilly system.

Tom Gerend:

People don't think of Kansas City necessarily as hilly.

Tom Gerend:

It's hilly.

Tom Gerend:

So we've got a lot of grades.

Tom Gerend:

We also got cold temperatures.

Tom Gerend:

Below zero and over 100 degrees.

Tom Gerend:

So the HVACs, you know, heating, cooling, we put a lot of demands

Tom Gerend:

on these cars and carrying a lot of heavy loads with a lot of passengers.

Tom Gerend:

So, so the overhead power has really, frankly, served us well,

Tom Gerend:

from a reliability standpoint.

Tom Gerend:

And I think as we're forecasting out life cycle costs of these

Tom Gerend:

vehicles, not, we do have some battery capacity there for, certain

Tom Gerend:

circumstances, for short distances.

Tom Gerend:

but they aren't off wire capable, so to speak.

Tom Gerend:

but that saves us significantly in terms of life cycle costs on battery

Tom Gerend:

replacements and maintenance over time.

Tom Gerend:

So they've

Tom Gerend:

worked well for us.

Paul Comfort:

And how did like, how did it work getting your

Paul Comfort:

power company to give you all this

Paul Comfort:

power?

Tom Gerend:

Well, we're paying for it.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah.

Tom Gerend:

So, you know, we're having enough capacity where they have to build

Tom Gerend:

new generators or, you know, we have.

Tom Gerend:

Four, four substations on the downtown alignment, and we had to do some work

Tom Gerend:

to, upgrade their networks, obviously, to feed those, with the appropriate

Tom Gerend:

level of power and reliability.

Tom Gerend:

We wanted to make sure, obviously, if we needed to move, we gotta have

Tom Gerend:

it all the time, and so, they've been a great partner, and again,

Tom Gerend:

we're a big user of theirs now, and, You're a top ten customer!

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, we're a big customer, we're buying a lot of power.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, better that than diesel fuel.

Paul Comfort:

All right, Tom, so we're here at The Streetcar Grill.

Paul Comfort:

Tell us about where we're at.

Tom Gerend:

So we're at a restaurant called the Streetcar Grill.

Tom Gerend:

It was a former service parking lot, right behind a streetcar stop.

Tom Gerend:

And it's just one of many illustrations of the power of

Tom Gerend:

transportation to To build communities.

Tom Gerend:

So, we were a lot of skeptics around economic development

Tom Gerend:

in streetcar when we started.

Paul Comfort:

And up on the wall is a screen that's not working right

Paul Comfort:

now, but we hope it will be soon.

Paul Comfort:

And what does that screen show us and tell us about how you do that?

Tom Gerend:

It's our streetcar arrival sign.

Tom Gerend:

So, we have developed a third party application where we can

Tom Gerend:

put a program on a fire stick.

Tom Gerend:

And we can program a fire stick to a station stop up and down our route, give

Tom Gerend:

them to businesses, and they can just plug them into TVs and it will automatically

Tom Gerend:

feed real time arrival information for their stop right out their front door.

Tom Gerend:

So their visitors can monitor the schedule, the upcoming, how much

Tom Gerend:

time they have left to get to the station for the next arrival.

Tom Gerend:

And it's worked out great.

Tom Gerend:

And, you know, we've got a restaurant on a former service parking

Tom Gerend:

lot that's doing pretty well.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, that tells a story, huh?

Tom Gerend:

It's, I think it tells a story, but it's obviously, it's all about

Tom Gerend:

bringing people in jobs back downtown.

Tom Gerend:

It's a big part of why we chose streetcar as the mode, for solving

Tom Gerend:

this transportation problem and to see the energy, the ridership.

Tom Gerend:

the economic, investment, we have, oh, we've had, we've seen over 3 billion

Tom Gerend:

dollars of active development, 40 percent increase in residential density within 3

Tom Gerend:

blocks of the route over the last 8 years.

Tom Gerend:

So, we are growing a neighborhood downtown that's now transit

Tom Gerend:

accessible and connected.

Tom Gerend:

Like, people can live car free or car light if they choose.

Tom Gerend:

It's an option.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, you were telling me there's a hotel right across the street with no parking.

Tom Gerend:

That's exactly right.

Tom Gerend:

We, we removed parking restrictions down here.

Tom Gerend:

We've got a hotel that was built without incentives.

Tom Gerend:

Incentives, with no parking is part of it, right behind a streetcar

Tom Gerend:

stop connected to everything.

Tom Gerend:

People can come in, they can Uber from the, you know, airport coming down,

Tom Gerend:

whatever, don't need a car to do to pretty much do anything down here.

Tom Gerend:

you're fully connected.

Tom Gerend:

It's part of their pitch now, and their competitive advantage of having

Tom Gerend:

that location right on our route.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, so it's been the transformation and it's one of the compelling reasons why

Tom Gerend:

the community has embraced growing it.

Tom Gerend:

You know, there's a lot of skepticism and fear.

Tom Gerend:

People wouldn't ride it.

Tom Gerend:

It's too expensive.

Tom Gerend:

Our city's too auto centric.

Tom Gerend:

What we're carrying, some days we're carrying 15, 000 people downtown.

Tom Gerend:

Over half of our city residents have ridden the streetcar in the last year.

Tom Gerend:

People are using it in spades and now they're wanting us to grow the

Tom Gerend:

impact and we get to try to manage that dynamic now of how do we grow

Tom Gerend:

the system intelligently, where it makes sense, and how do we connect

Tom Gerend:

ourselves to all of the other services that the region has to offer.

Paul Comfort:

That's great.

Paul Comfort:

So it's the power of placemaking, isn't it?

Paul Comfort:

Where the streetcar is making a place, making downtown into a place.

Tom Gerend:

It's a place.

Tom Gerend:

It's redefined.

Tom Gerend:

It's our linking of these four districts together.

Tom Gerend:

River Market, Union Station, Downtown Loop, and Crossroads together has really

Tom Gerend:

connected the most authentic, best of Kansas City for people and visitors

Tom Gerend:

and residents to have easy access to.

Tom Gerend:

So we've elevated the best of what our city has to offer.

Tom Gerend:

offer and connected people to it and, it was really in the process of

Tom Gerend:

redefining downtown in many respects.

Paul Comfort:

And you told me that was really what got you into

Paul Comfort:

transportation to start with, right?

Tom Gerend:

That's exactly right.

Tom Gerend:

I started with, on the regional planning front.

Tom Gerend:

I really focused more on community development and, planning through

Tom Gerend:

regional planning commissions and I got into transportation because

Tom Gerend:

of the power of transportation.

Tom Gerend:

I came to Mid America Regional Council here in Kansas City almost

Tom Gerend:

20 years ago to lead the region's long range transportation plan.

Tom Gerend:

And as part of that, I'll focus on transit and moving that forward.

Paul Comfort:

What a great career story, Tom, moving from planning into

Paul Comfort:

really placemaking here in Kansas City.

Tom Gerend:

Yeah, it's not very often you get to plan a project, watch

Tom Gerend:

it come to fruition, support its operation, support its expansion.

Tom Gerend:

So I've been really blessed and humbled to be just a part of something that's

Tom Gerend:

really changed the face of Kansas City and we like to say we're building

Tom Gerend:

a system for future generations, so seeing young kids growing up now.

Tom Gerend:

This is the norm in Kansas City.

Tom Gerend:

That's pretty powerful Amazing opportunity.

Tom Gerend:

So just excited to be here.

Paul Comfort:

That's wonderful.

Paul Comfort:

Well, it's an honor to speak with you today You're doing it

Paul Comfort:

right here in Kansas City, baby.

Tom Gerend:

Well, thanks for coming to Kansas City.

Tom Gerend:

You're welcome back anytime

Tris Huusey:

Hi, this is Tris Hussey editor of the transit unplugged podcast.

Tris Huusey:

And thank you for listening to this episode of transit unplugged with our

Tris Huusey:

guest Tom Gerend of KC Streetcar now coming up next week on the show, we

Tris Huusey:

have something, a little different.

Tris Huusey:

We have a mayor on the show.

Tris Huusey:

In fact, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

Tris Huusey:

And he tells us about their new BRT line, their new light rail line and how he's

Tris Huusey:

engaging businesses to make it all happen.

Tris Huusey:

Hey.

Tris Huusey:

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Tris Huusey:

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Tris Huusey:

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So until next week, ride safe and ride happy.