Kansas City Essentials
- Streetcar and buses are free.
- Transit app seems mostly accurate.
Pros
- Free transit
- Streetcar stops near Amtrak
Cons
- Steep hills
- Cool things are far from downtown?
April 2025
Amtrak to Downtown
The streetcar made it very easy to get from the Amtrak station to downtown. It stops right across the street, going the direction you expect, at what looks like a light rail stop. The middle doors are wheelchair accessible.
Scrambling to figure out how to pay the fare, I was delighted to learn that the streetcar and local buses are free in Kansas City. KC makes it very easy for a random visitor to get downtown. Bravo!
Downtown has some very steep hills. The hotel told me that cities are typically built on hills in this part of the country, because they are much less likely to experience tornadoes.
“Two blocks from the streetcar” might mean a hefty uphill trek to your hotel, so just be aware of that.
Just a Quick Trip
I didn’t ride the buses in Kansas City. I was going through a rough bout of insomnia and was massively sleep-deprived. I do think I missed out on a lot of the city this way; Kansas City definitely gave me “the interesting things are five miles away from downtown in any direction” vibes, and the hotel’s recommendations for barbecue seemed to confirm that.
I was also getting “some parts of town might be sketch” vibes, and while I’m normally not too deterred by that, I wasn’t jumping at the opportunity on two hours of sleep. Looking forward to giving the city a proper shot in the future.
The BBQ was fire though. This massive meal actually broke me out of my insomnia. I slept like a baby on Amtrak that night, and slept pretty well the rest of my cross-country-and-up-the-coast trip.
Are there better mom&pop BBQ spots away from downtown? Probably. I’ll have to go back.
Oddities
The station platforms for the KC streetcar had one thing odd about them: The center of the platform aligned with the doors, but the front and rear of the platform were ramps. So if you were getting onto the front or rear car, it was from a slanted step.
I’m sure there’s a good reason for it — perhaps space savings on the sidewalk or a more efficient uniform pre-designed station — but it limits wheelchair users to enter and exit using the middle car.
