We should all be proud of the notable progress being made on significant regional transit projects like the downtown streetcar, TIGER corridor investments, commuter transit efforts, and comprehensive service reconfigurations that are repositioning existing transit services to be more efficient and effective.  These are significant steps towards a higher quality public transportation system, one that we can all be proud of.

Unfortunately these initiatives — while incredibly exciting — won’t, by themselves, lead to a long-lasting, sustainable and sufficiently supported regional transit system.  Most seem to agree that the region’s significant public transportation challenges relate to long-term funding across jurisdictions and seamless region service coordination among providers, and it is these difficult challenges that have continued to be elusive.

Today, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors  joined MARC’s Board to approve the formation of a new transportation committee, the Transit Coordinating Council (TCC). The TCC will provide a necessary forum to engage and coordinate with local jurisdictions and regional transit operations. The goal of the TCC is to create a structured and strategic approach to regional transit service coordination, policy development, funding and decision making.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Robbie Makinen, chairman of the KCATA board. “This action represents a true partnership and will be catalyst for improved regional coordination for years to come”.

The TCC will be an advisory body to MARC, KCATA and local jurisdictions and will provide a forum to address regional transit planning, coordination and implementation of transit priorities. TCC meetings will be open to the public.

The TCC objectives include:

• Provide improved forum to support coordination of regional transit operations and services, planning and related transit activities;
• Advise on technical and policy input to existing KCATA, MARC and local communities;
• Improve alignments between federal planning and programming requirements and processes;
• And support governance and structural changes to the regional transit services, over time.

The new committee will be composed of co-chairs from MARC’s Board of Directors and KCATA Board appointees; board and senior staff representatives from local transit operators; elected local officials and senior staff from local jurisdictions involved in funding public transit services; and will be supported with existing MARC and KCATA staff resources.

The existing MARC Transit Committee will transition to serve as the Transit Stakeholder Forum, which MARC will convene on an as-needed basis to provide a platform for public engagement and public participation on regional transit issues. This stakeholder forum will supplement the activities of the TCC.

We invite you to monitor the Transit Coordinating Council’s activities online.