(Kansas City, Mo. – Oct. 3, 2016) The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) is expanding a transit route serving students at Metropolitan Community College’s Maple Woods campus in the Northland.
Starting today, three northbound trips and five southbound will be added to the 38-Meadowbrook route, which runs from downtown through North Kansas City and Gladstone. The route also will be renumbered to 238-Meadowbrook as part of a new numbering system for the Kansas City region’s transit network.
The expansion brings added service to the more than 4,600 students enrolled at MCC-Maple Woods who are now part of the U-Pass program, which allows students to use their college ID as a bus pass.
“This is a great way to introduce a new generation of students to transit,” said Robbie Makinen, president and chief executive officer of KCATA. “We are very excited about partnering with MCC to provide new transportation alternatives to students, especially at a time of the day when public transportation hasn’t been available.”
The new service added to the route will be in the evening. Now, bus service on 238 ends at 11:30 p.m. instead of just after the evening rush hour.
“We are thrilled that the MCC partnership with KCATA continues to expand to serve the students at MCC-Maple Woods and citizens in the northland,” said Shelley Temple Kneuvean, Metropolitan Community College’s vice chancellor for financial and administrative services. “Not only is this partnership removing a barrier to accessing higher education, but it is encouraging the next generation to support public transit throughout our region. We are extremely appreciative of the proactive planning and responsiveness by KCATA based on the increasing demand to our college campuses.”
The Meadowbrook route is being renumbered as part of a new classification system that gives riders a better idea of a route’s service area and fare.
The new numbering system will be organized into regions and types of service. Route numbers across the region are changing gradually. Here’s how the numbers will change:
More route numbers south of the Missouri River change this month. The 109-9th Street is now 9-9th Street, the 123-23rd Street is 23-23rd Street, 155-55th Street is 55-55th Street and 163-63rd Street is 63-63rd Street. Earlier this year, four other routes were assigned new numbers under the plan.