I still remember when the KC Streetcar extension was in the talking stage. It was April 2017 and “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran was the top song on the radio. Salt Bae was the top-trending meme on the internet. The iPhone 7 was the latest model.
About eight years later and three and a half years after breaking ground, the streetcar made its inaugural extension run on a rainy late-October day. “On time and under budget,” Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, said to a cheering crowd at the grand unveiling. “This is a generational project that’s going to connect downtown employment centers to the heart of Kansas City and to our largest university. There’s no question this is a monumental milestone.”
One Sunday afternoon, I set off for the first stop at UMKC, curious to see not just the new extension but what it feels like to ride the entire line in real time.
12:32 pm – UMKC
The UMKC platform feels like a true bustling urban metro station. I arrive just as the doors close, but the operator kindly opens them for me before the car takes off.
I’m immediately shocked at how busy the car is, filled with teal jerseys and scarves. I grab an open seat and, in a quick Google search, confirm what I suspected: the Current match kicks off in a few hours.
12:34 pm – Plaza
The ride to the Plaza is done in a snap. The doors glide open and more teal floods in. “The farther we head north, the more we’ll see of the tall buildings,” says a mom to three kids, all dressed for the game. It’s their first streetcar ride, and she snaps photos of them clinging to the holding rails.
12:38 pm – Art Museum
“They must have taken the Chappell Roan streetcar wrap off. I haven’t seen one,” a twenty-something just to the right of me says. Until this stop, the streetcar’s two tracks—one for each direction—run side by side. Now, they begin to separate, diverging across the street from each other.
12:39 pm – Southmoreland
By now, based on overheard conversations and the sheer amount of teal onboard, it’s clear that most of these riders are going to the end of the line. Out the window, a group of three women sitting outside at Soli Deo watch us go by, and in that moment, I truly feel the connection that this extension has formed.
12:43 pm – Westport
“This is a pretty smooth ride,” an elderly man behind me says. “People pay good money for transportation like this.” The undercover journalist in me is delighted at this golden quote.
12:46 pm – Armour
I have a quick chat with the couple next to me. They live in Brookside and can walk to the UMKC stop. They’re on their way to meet friends for lunch at Enzo in City Market.
12:50 pm – Union Hill
I see the KCTV broadcast tower nearing, and I’m a little stunned at how close this stop is to Martini Corner, one of my favorite neighborhoods. I remember e-scooting up here when I lived in the Crossroads (which took far longer than I’d like to admit). Oh, what I would’ve done for a streetcar line like this at 24.
12:52 pm – World War I Museum and Memorial
As we pass the museum lawn, the same woman who mentioned the Chappell Roan wrap is describing the concert’s setup there to her friend. Who knew there’d be so much Chappell Roan chatter today?
12:55 pm – Union Station
When we approach Union Station, there’s some confusion. “Did we miss it?” a woman says as we start to slow down just across the street from the newly built stop.
As a regular streetcar rider, the rest of the route feels familiar, and I ended up at the final stop, River Market West, at 1:17 pm—45 minutes on the dot to ride the entire line. The car got so crowded that, at the Power and Light stop, the operator told waiting passengers they’d need to catch the next streetcar. “Phew, it was getting busy,” a woman in the car says after most riders disembark at River Market. “I almost felt like I was on a New York subway.”
Forty-five minutes, twenty blocks and one continuous wave of teal later, the entire streetcar ride felt less like lines on a map and more like a thread connecting our city.
(This article was originally reported on and published in December 2025).
