Kansas

Kansas City will lose nearly half its bus routes under transit agency's drastic cost-cutting plan

Published

12 months ago

March 12, 2025

Kansas City will lose nearly half its bus routes under transit agency's drastic cost-cutting plan

The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is bracing for drastic cuts to service if Kansas City passes its proposed budget, according to documents obtained by KCUR.

To maintain the current status quo for its Kansas City operations — which already includes long wait times and the fewest bus routes the agency’s had in decades — the KCATA needs about $117 million. The city plans to give the agency $71 million in its 2025-2026 budget.

Without any more funding, KCATA will cut 13 of its 29 routes in Kansas City, Missouri. Those cuts would affect more than 6,500 people, about 18% of the city’s total weekday ridership.

Anthony Cunningham is a leader with Sunrise Movement KC, a climate activist organization that’s been pushing the city to increase funding for KCATA for years. Cunningham relies on the bus and says fewer and less frequent routes will make it harder for him and other riders to get to work, school, the grocery store and doctor’s appointments.

“These proposed cuts to our bus and paratransit services are excessive, and are a slap in the face to poor and working-class Kansas Citians who rely on these services every single day,” Cunningham said.

The agency will also stop service at 11 p.m. instead of 1 a.m., and will only operate seven routes on the weekends, about a third of what it currently operates on weekends. The agency will also run fewer buses on its remaining 16 routes, leaving riders waiting even longer.

The proposed route cuts are:

#9, 9th Street
#11, Northeast Westside
#19, Crossroads
#21, Cleveland Antioch
#23, 23rd Street
#25, Troost Local
#27, 27th Street
#28, Blue Ridge
#29, Blue Ridge Limited
#57, Wornall
#63, 63rd Street
#71, Prospect Local
#75, 75th Street

Savannah Hawley-Bates

KCUR 89.3

KCATA’s cost-saving plan means 171 workers at the agency will be laid off. That includes 130 drivers, who are represented by the ATU.

The agency would lay off about 28% of its total workforce, or about 171 staff members. That includes 130 drivers as well as maintenance and administrative staff. It would also reduce quarterly attendance bonuses and overtime bonuses.

The agency’s plan assumes the city will cut the on-demand transit service IRIS, which costs the KCATA about $7.6 million. But the city council has not yet introduced cutting the rideshare program.

Reginald Townsend, chair of KCATA’s board, said that the agency is committed to working with local, state and federal partners to secure more funding.

“Our focus remains on providing safe, efficient, and accessible transportation options that support the economic vitality and mobility needs of our communities,” Townsend said. “While ridership remains strong, we recognize the need to make strategic adjustments to right-size the agency.”

Nic Miller is president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1287, the union that represents KCATA’s bus drivers. He said his members are angry and terrified because they don’t know what will happen to their jobs.

“It’s very hard for me, as a president, not to have the answers,” Miller said. “It’s hard for the company not to have the answers when all the answers rely upon the city. So now everyone’s just kind of left in limbo.”

Kansas City has not decreased its funding to KCATA in the past few years, but operational costs have risen drastically since 2021 due to inflation and increases in wages, security costs, marketing and paratransit. The agency’s total operating cost went from about $84 million in 2021 to $113 million last year.

If the KCATA’s costs this year mirror last year’s, its funding will fall $28 million shy of expenses, a gap that it covered last year with a sales tax reserve and federal COVID relief funds. But KCATA expects that it will need about $117 million to maintain the status quo of bus service due to rising costs, making the real funding gap about $32 million.

Other U.S. transit agencies are facing similar financial crises. In 2024, the Mid-America Regional Council released a study comparing Kansas City’s bus system to 10 peer cities and four aspirational cities, like Minneapolis and Denver. It found that KCATA had the second-lowest operating expense per passenger trip, while still ranking as the second-most productive agency.

A red commuter bus pulls away from a sidewalk. The sun is reflected off the windshield. — KCATA plans to cut nearly half of its routes without more money from Kansas City. The routes that remain will run less frequently, increasing wait times.

Kansas City Council members discussed the funding gap with KCATA CEO Frank White III at a business session last week. Melissa Robinson, 3rd district councilmember, said many of her constituents use public transportation to get to work. She said she worries that if bus lines get cut, economic mobility will decrease and crime will increase because of poverty.

“If we’re wanting to be real about crime prevention, real about homicide prevention, real about helping people to achieve their economic potential, we should not be cutting their lifeline,” Robinson said.

“I implore us to give our KCATA the same opportunities that we give our men and women in blue, our firefighters. We give them what they need in order to do their jobs. Transit is no different.”

Johnathan Duncan, Crispin Rea, Eric Bunch, and Darrell Curls also spoke against cutting bus lines.

Many of the people who attended each of the city’s three public listening sessions called bus funding a top priority, and urged city council to increase funding for KCATA. The city is set to approve the budget at the next council meeting on March 20.

Council members Rea and Bunch introduced a budget amendment to redirect $2 million from the Public Mass Transportation tax that was meant for LED streetlights to the KCATA.

That money could be enough to save the #25, #27 or #71, each of which cost about $2 million to run. But unless the city council amends the budget to provide more money to KCATA, most of the service cuts would still be necessary.

People stand outside the RideKC/KCATA headquarters holding signs. — About 100 people, including KCATA drivers, rallied outside of the agency’s headquarters in January. They urged Kansas City to increase its funding to the agency to avoid route cuts and layoffs.

Kansas City gives nearly all of the 3/8th-cent KCATA sales tax to the transit agency. But about 15 years ago, it began decreasing the amount it gives the agency from its half-cent public mass transportation tax.

In this year’s proposed budget, only about two-thirds of the tax, or about $30.4 million, will go to the KCATA, with the remainder going to traffic safety and infrastructure.

At the business session, Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw told White she still has “heartache” from route cuts the KCATA made several years ago that affected her district, the 5th, but didn’t seem to save any money in the long run.

“Kansas City taxpayers just continue to add to an inefficient program,” Parks-Shaw said. “Before we even put a bus on the street, we pay $19 million (in administrative costs) off the top. And that’s the piece that is unsustainable.”

White said the agency is considering introducing a “functionally free” fare model, instead of the zero fare model it’s currently using. Under the new system, only those who could afford to pay fares would.

He said that could give KCATA about $10-13 million in revenue, but it would take the agency more than a year to implement.

In the past few years, Independence, Blue Springs, Gladstone, Raytown, Liberty, Parkville and Riverside have cut their funding to the agency. White told city council he was working to bring those municipalities back on the system. Without their funding, Kansas City bears the brunt of the agency’s $19 million in administrative costs.

White said the KCATA is working toward becoming more of a regional transportation authority, as it was created to be, and is seeking more funding from Missouri and Kansas.

“It’s a crisis created by the city,” said Miller, the transit union president. “I believe that the city just wants to privatize the company. KCATA has pretty much exhausted all of its funds. The only thing that they can really start to look at now is reducing service, which is what the city wants them to do.”

The KCATA will hold two public meetings about the proposed cuts. The first will be Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the East Village Transit Center at 12th and Charlotte Streets. A virtual meeting will be held Friday from 12-1 p.m. over Zoom.

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Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

Published

7 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) – As Kansas women’s basketball prepares to enter the postseason at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, they’ll be led by two Overland Park natives who have been two of the most electrifying players to watch in the country this year.

Junior guard S’Mya Nichols and freshman forward Jaliya Davis have played integral roles in the recent growth of the program. Both cite the desire to help grow the Jayhawks into something special as reasons for committing there.

“Where we wanted to take Kansas women’s basketball, I wanted to be a part of that growing evolution,” Nichols told KCTV5.

“We [my family] were also really big Jayhawk fans. We came to a lot of games,” Davis said about her childhood.

The two were both 5-star recruits in high school, and their commitments marked historic recruiting victories for the KU women’s basketball program.

First came Nichols in the Class of 2023, picking KU over Tennessee and Oklahoma.

“I genuinely wanted to go to Kansas,” she said.

Then Davis became the highest-rated player to ever commit to KU as part of the Class of 2025.

“When you go back to S’Mya Nichols being a local, Kansas City, Overland Park product, a nationally respected player, Jaliya was really the next one that was very important for the Jayhawks to keep home,” said head coach Brandon Schneider.

Now as a junior, Nichols has established herself as one of the most consistent scorers and physical guards in the nation.

But it’s the Shawnee Mission West’s alum’s leadership that defines her legacy in Lawrence.

“The team leader, the quarterback,” Coach Schneider described Nichols. “I think oftentimes the player that everybody looks up to off the court.”

“I mean it means everything. Knowing that I’m important to the team, and that they see me as that as well,” said Nichols with a smile.

Both Nichols and Davis were recruited by the Jayhawks for years, going all the way back to seventh grade.

“Well, we offered her in middle school,’ Coach Schneider said with a laugh about Davis.

“Oh he put in a lot of work,” laughed Davis. “I mean, obviously, seventh grade, that’s a long time.”

It was that dedication from Coach Schneider that led her to choose the Jayhawks over Texas, South Carolina, Baylor, and Oklahoma – where he dad played ball.

“I think it really was the relationship we had and grew. He was always there, every single one of my games,” Davis said about Schneider.

After just one practice as teammates, Nichols voiced a big belief about Davis into existence – and it’s probably going to come true.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.(KCTV5)

“I saw her first practice, and I sent her a text, and I’m like ‘I think you can win Freshman of the Year’, and I still stand by that,”

Davis is averaging 21.0 points per game, and has been named the Big 12 Freshman of the Week for eight weeks in a row. That sets a power conference all-time record.

“I think it’s really cool. I mean obviously it’s a team effort, they’re always looking for me,” Davis said about her historic accomplishment.

“Just a phenomenal stretch of basketball for her, and so well deserving,” said Coach Schneider.

Now these two homegrown stars are at the forefront of a late-season push to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Right now, CBS Sports bracketology has them as a ‘First Four Out’ team.

But a few wins in the Big 12 Tournament could certainly help seal their invite to the big dance.

“Obviously we’re not in the position that we were hoping to be in, but I think we can make the most out of it, and get to where we want to be,” Davis said about the opportunity at hand in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

The Overland Park kids are especially fired up about starting the postseason in their own backyard.

“I have a big support system. So I bet my family will take a big chunk of that area during that tournament,” Davis laughed.

“I remember being younger, and the College Basketball Experience is right next door. So I felt like at one moment that was the big stage, when I got to play my little AAU tournaments in there. And then all of a sudden I’m literally in T-Mobile Center on the actual big stage, so it’s pretty cool,” said Nichols.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.

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Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

MANHATTAN — David Castillo sank his free throw to finish off a three-point play to cut TCU’s lead to two late in the second half. Kansas State had a chance to play spoiler to a team that was on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

For the previous 36 minutes, the Wildcats were more engaged than they had been all season. You wouldn’t have recognized they were just under two weeks removed from their head coach getting fired. The Wildcats were in the middle of a competitive basketball game when there haven’t been many this season.

And then the final four minutes happened, and the Wildcats lost once again.

Kansas State pulled within one score six different times in the second half against the Horned Frogs, only to never take a lead, and then go 4 minutes, 4 seconds without a point after Castillo’s late bucket, leading to a 77-68 loss.

K-State interim coach Matthew Driscoll compared the loss to a broken record, when the Wildcats have been close late, only to fall apart in the end.

“We get there, and then, for whatever reason, we can’t break through,” Driscoll said. “When we got it to a one-point game, I thought that this was when we were going to turn the corner. It just seems like we keep getting close, and we can’t break through that wall.”

Kansas State (11-18, 2-14 Big 12) has been within striking distance in a handful of games this season, only to go on lengthy scoring droughts and come up short in the end.

While there are plenty of games in which the Wildcats were blown out or didn’t show half the effort they showed against the Horned Frogs, there have been enough games that if the Wildcats finished, they wouldn’t be fighting to not finish at the bottom of the Big 12 standings.

K-State’s Feb. 25 loss to Colorado is another example, having two five-plus-minute spurts in which it didn’t score a point. The Wildcats held late leads against West Virginia and Oklahoma State, and in their first game against TCU, only to choke away those leads.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” Khamari McGriff said. “It’s been a fight to continue to focus on the next right thing and let whatever has happened in the past, and just try to get to a point where we can compete for 40 minutes. We gotta look at it with the perspective that we’ve been close a lot of times, and we just gotta figure out how to take that next step.”

Kansas State is running out of opportunities to achieve that “next step.” The Wildcats have a home game on Tuesday, March 3, against a beatable West Virginia team before closing the regular season at Kansas on March 7. After that, it would be surprising if the Wildcats get more than two games at the Big 12 Tournament.

But Driscoll hasn’t seen his team quit, which is almost all he can ask for after what has been a season to forget.

“We just haven’t completed the deal,” Driscoll said.

Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com

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Kansas Highway Patrol reports five-vehicle crash in Johnson Co. Friday

Published

2 days ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Kansas Highway Patrol reports five-vehicle crash in Johnson Co. Friday

JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. (WIBW) – Multiple people were involved in a five-vehicle crash Friday in Johnson County.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol Crash Log, the crash occurred around 4:55 p.m. on Interstate 35.

Five vehicles: a 2021 Toyota Tacoma, a 2010 Toyota Sienna, a 2014 Honda Pilot, a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu, and a 2018 Ford Mustang, were all traveling northbound on the I-35 long ramp to 75th Street.

The 2021 Toyota Tacoma exited the roadway to the right and struck the rear of the 2010 Toyota Sienna.

The 2021 Toyota Tacoma then continued northbound and struck the 2024 Honda Pilot.

The Honda Pilot was pushed and struck the rear of the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu, which then lost control and struck the 2018 Ford Mustang. The Chevrolet Malibu then struck the barrier wall.

There were no serious injuries reported in the incident.

The driver of the Toyota Tacoma, a 28-year-old male of Kansas City, Kan., was taken to a hospital with a possible injury. He was wearing a safety restraint.

The Toyota Sienna driver, a 23-year-old female, of Merriam, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The Honda Pilot driver, a 75-year-old male of Lenexa, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The driver of the Chevrolet Malibu, a 31-year-old female of Kansas City, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The 2018 Ford Mustang held two occupants. The driver, a 19-year-old male of Garden Plain, Kan., had no apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

The other occupant in the vehicle was an 18-year-old female of Goddard, Kan. She did not have any apparent injuries and was wearing a safety restraint.

View the full Kansas Highway Patrol Crash log on this incident here.

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