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Northland leaders were caught off guard last week when Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders introduced a regional transit proposal that features commuter rail reaching into four counties.

The routes, which would reach all the way to Kansas City International Airport and Kearney in the Northland, would come together in downtown Kansas City at Union Station.

Sanders said the system would cost just more than $1 billion. Sanders said he would ask the federal government to fully fund the plan.

“It surprised me,” Clay County Presiding Commissioner Ed Quick said of the plan. “Clay and Platte counties approved the formation of a regional transit district several months ago and we had been waiting for Jackson County to do so. They never did.”

Late last year, the area’s elected leaders who had been working to develop a regional transit proposal, agreed to let Sanders, Quick and Platte County Presiding Commissioner Betty Knight take the lead on the effort as the counties would have the critical role in providing operational funding.

Knight, like Quick, said she was surprised by the commuter rail plan.

“We had visited several times (about a regional transit system) but hadn’t met since the start of summer,” she said.

Knight also raised the issue of where operational funding for Sander’s plan would come from, citing the current economic conditions.

“It’s really going to be a challenge to put anything in place at this time to run the system,” she said.

Sanders said the system, which in most cases would run on parallel tracks next to existing rail lines, could be in place within the next two years.

Knight has raised the issue of a commuter rail corridor that would run to KCI, citing space concerns along the main thoroughfares.

Quick said at this point he would prefer to see more buses on Northland streets, with the flexibility that type of system can provide.

“Spending $7 million a mile (on commuter rail) to transport 30 or 40 people from one area seems like a lot of money,” he said.

In the past Quick has also cited the Northland’s lack of population density at this time as a reason to hold off on commuter rail.

Knight also believes an expanded bus system is a more feasible system for the Northland at this time, but she said she understands commuter rail may work better for Jackson County’s needs.

ONLINE

For more information on the Smart Moves plan, another proposal for a regional transit system, visit www.kcsmartmoves.org.

Senior writer Mark Johnson can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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