For some UMKC students, RideKC is their only option to get around. However, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA)’s plan to reintroduce a $2 one-way fee has some students worried about affordability.
Alongside proposed cuts, officials stated plans to stop service at 11 p.m. instead of 1 a.m., effective on Feb. 15. Funding constraints also mean longer wait times, with a projected 60-minute headway for routes excluding The Main Max, Troost Max, Prospect Max, and #24.
John Ross, a film and media arts student, has lived in Midtown for the past 10 years and relies on public transport. Now, as a first-time UMKC student, he uses the streetcar extension to get to and from campus.
While Ross thinks the fares will make the buses less accessible to people, he hopes it will foster a climate “for groups like the Sunrise Movement to challenge City Hall, to find a way to make them free at some point.”
In efforts to generate more revenue, Governor Kehoe issued 208 vetoes, including transit operations. This meant a 42% cut in public transit revenues from 2024 from $11.7 million to $6.7 million.
The proposed transit budget for 2027 could also face a projected drop, gutting another $5 million from general revenue.
Jacob Antolini, a graduate student in economics and Sunrise Movement KC leader, argued that the KCATA transit budget focuses more on “social planning” than economic impact.
“Frank White III said that this will bring ‘ridership profile changes.’ I mean, we know what this is about. It’s about the unhoused,” Antolini said. “If it was such a big deal for them to fund their system with fares, they would get it done as soon as they had a budget shortfall.”
Antolini is a bus rider by choice and regularly takes 25 Troost to get to campus. Growing up where the top headline was a bus bench without shelter, he says his commutes between school and work keep him anchored in the KC community.
KCATA’s Chief Mobility and Strategy Officer, Tyler Means, said the fare transition would help meet revenue goals and stabilize funding cuts from the city.
But how popular is this change?
A UMKC research team received over $3 million in federal grants to study the sustainability of free bus transit and its health impacts, set to be completed later in 2026.
Dr. Amanda Grimes, an associate professor of nursing and health, found that ridership increased by around 25% after the zero-fare policy and predicts that it will drop by 25% when fees are reinstated.
In a survey of around 3,000 residents, she found that most voters supported keeping the public transportation tax in order to maintain free buses.
“They also overwhelmingly supported increasing that tax a little bit to provide access to the zero-fare transit indefinitely,” Grimes said. “So voters want it, and that’s not just bus riders.”
Ross expressed “mixed” feelings about the $2 fares but shared that buses were a public need.
“Budget reasons made it come back, but you know, taking [public transit] outside of taking it to and from campus, people need to get around,” Ross said. “A lot of us as students, no matter how old we are or where we’re from, we’re all struggling day to day.”
The KC streetcar’s only route is north-south on Main Street. With the east-west extension still in its early planning stages, residents who rely on public transit wonder whether the streetcar is a viable alternative.
“I don’t think [the streetcar] is a sufficient alternative,” said Antolini. “The East-West Troost divide is still there, and to have the only free transit in our city to be directly west of Troost and to be north-south only, is really just disappointing.”
KCATA Spokesperson Cindy Baker stated that RideKC will develop pass programs for certain institutions, similar to the U-Pass in 2011. However, information about these programs is limited.
Bus fare budgeting will be finalized by the end of January.
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