KCATA Launches New Regional Bus Service

A major expansion of regional transit service connecting Wyandotte and Johnson counties launches Jan. 4.

Filling a key gap in public transportation, the expanded service will link the transit center on Johnson Drive in Mission to the University of Kansas Medical Center complex.

The new service extends the current 107-7th Street/Parallel route 3.5 miles south from 43rd Avenue and Booth Street to the Mission Transit Center at 5251 Johnson Drive.

The entire route will operate from the transit center at 47th Street and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas to the University of Kansas Medical center and on to Mission. The route includes a stop in downtown Kansas City, Kansas at 7th Street and Minnesota Avenue.

Operating hourly each weekday, the expanded service will offer four round trips in the morning and four more in the afternoon between Mission and the medical center.

Currently, there are only two, one-way northbound trips in the morning to the medical center from Mission and two, one-way southbound trips in the afternoon.

The expanded service will give Wyandotte County residents better access to jobs via the Mission Transit Center, which offers connections to major Johnson County employers.

In Johnson County, the new service will give residents better access to the medical center complex, where roughly 10,000 people work each day. The new service will relieve parking demands in an area where there are only about 5,000 parking slots.

The new service answers a study done by the KCATA that found a demand for transit serving the KU medical center area. Of the 10,000 employees commuting to the medical center area each day, only 13 percent are directly served by transit routes feeding the area, the 2012 KCATA study reported.

The new service is a regional partnership of Wyandotte and Johnson counties as well as the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.