Open House Meetings for New MAX on Troost Bus Rapid Transit Service

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) is announcing three open houses to invite the community to learn and provide input about the new MAX Bus Rapid Transit service coming to Troost Avenue. The route will start downtown, continue along Troost Avenue to Hospital Hill, then continue to the Bannister redevelopment area.

The first three open houses are below. There will be future meetings at other times of the day in the coming months.

Monday, March 31, 2008
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Truman Medical Center
2301 Holmes, Ground Floor, Conf. Room 3 & 4
Kansas City

Tuesday, April 1, 2008
11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Cleaver Family YMCA
7000 Troost
Kansas City

Thursday, April 3, 2008
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
United Believers Community Church
7546 Troost
Kansas City

KCATA hopes to make it as convenient as possible for the public to provide input on such issues as station design and locations, integration into surrounding neighborhoods and opportunities for station enhancements.

“We planned these public meetings as open houses so that people can stop in for 15-20 minutes and get a good idea of the whole project without having to take a lot of time out of their day,” said Keith Sanders, KCATA project manager.

MAX Bus Rapid Transit was first introduced in Kansas City in the Main Street corridor in July 2005. MAX is helping to change the face of transit in Kansas City, being held up as a national model by the Federal Transit Administration. Ridership has grown more than 40% in the Main Street MAX corridor. Part of MAX’s success has been the unique branding of MAX buses and stations, featuring real-time arrival signs.

“We are excited to be associated with this transit project in the Troost corridor,” said Leonard Graham, president of Taliaferro & Brown, Inc., a local engineering firm that is leading the design effort. “We believe that this effort will not only provide an exciting transit upgrade for The Metro’s highest ridership route, but will be yet another contributor to revitalizing the Troost corridor.”

Light Rail Public Input Meetings Throughout City

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) and the City of Kansas City, Mo., will host a series of public meetings to gather input on implementing light rail.

Each meeting will cover designated topics. The meetings on each topic will be held in multiple locations. The topics and corresponding meetings are:

• Meeting #1 - Orientation & Goals
• Meeting #2 - Street Alignment, Station Location and Economic Development
• Meeting #3 - Street Alignment, Station Location and Economic Development
• Meeting #4 - Report out & Discussion

Although the meetings are evenly divided among geographic areas, citizens are welcome at any area meetings. The entire proposed light rail route will be discussed at all meetings.

Location	Meeting 1 Orientation & Goals	Meeting 2 Street Alignment, Station Location & Economic Development	Meeting 3 Street Alignment, Station Location & Economic Development	Meeting 4 Report-out
Northland	March 25 5:30-7:30 pm Northgate Middle School 2117 NE 48th	April 15 5:30-7:30 pm KC North Comm. Ctr. 3930 NE Antioch	April 22 5:30-7:30 pm KC North Comm. Ctr. 3930 NE Antioch	May 6 5:30-7:30 pm KC North Comm. Ctr. 3930 NE Antioch
East Side	March 24 6-8 pm Mohart Multi-Purp. Ctr. 3200 Wayne	April 7 6-8 pm Gates Headquarters 4621 Paseo	April 21 6-8 pm Brush Creek Comm. Ctr. 3801 Brush Creek Blvd.	May 5 6-8 pm Gates Headquarters 4621 Paseo
Downtown	March 5 5:30-7:30 pm Town Pavilion 1100 Walnut, 4 th Floor	March 26 5:30-7:30 pm KC Design Center 1018 Baltimore	April 9 5:30-7:30 pm Scarritt Building 818 Grand Blvd.	April 23 5:30-7:30 pm Scarritt Building 818 Grand Blvd.
Midtown	March 27 5:30-7:30 pm St. Paul’s Episcopal 11 E. 40th	April 10 5:30-7:30 pm St. Paul’s Episcopal 11 E. 40th	April 24 5:30-7:30 pm MainCor 3215 Main, Suite 200	May 8 5:30-7:30 pm St. Paul’s Episcopal 11 E. 40th
Citywide Meeting	May 13 Ruskin High School Gymnasium, 7000 E 111th St., Kansas City, MO 64134 May 14 Midwest Baptist Seminary, 701 Ne Vivion Rd, Kansas City, MO 64118 Discuss citywide connections.

Follow-up meetings will be held in August to provide a summary of conclusions from the technical and environmental evaluation, and to obtain further community input.

For more information, visit the light rail section of kcata.org.

A flyer of meeting times is available in PDF format.