KCATA secures nearly $15M in federal funding for bus improvements, cross-city route concept

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) was awarded nearly $15 million in federal funding, most of which will go toward bus storage improvements.

Nearly $10.4 million was awarded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will be used to upgrade bus storage and electric-vehicle charging facilities. Upgrades will include heating and cooling improvements, fire system updates and roof repairs.

The remaining $4.5 million was given through a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant. KCATA will use the money to study an east-west transportation route from the University of Kansas Health System to the Truman Sports Complex.

In October, the KCATA and the Kansas City Streetcar Authority made a public presentation of different alignments for the proposed new route. At the time, officials were considering a bus route and streetcar line.

"Our goal is to have connected and clean rides, where anyone can get where they need," Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said.

The $4.5 million grant builds on a conceptual transportation corridor that the U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) and Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) introduced last year. The corridor would run 24 miles within both Wyandotte and Jackson counties and connect Kansas City, Kansas; Kansas City and Independence.

Cleaver and Davids attended a Monday afternoon news conference announcing the funding. Along with Lucas, Tyrone Garner, the mayor and CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, and Independence Mayor Rory Rowland also were there.

"It's time to stop focusing on the infrastructure our grandparents built and invest in the infrastructure our grandchildren will use," Davids said.