This week our neighbors on the other side of the state celebrated the opening of the new Gateway Transportation Center, a multimodal facility that serves as the hub Amtrak intercity trains, Greyhound intercity buses, and local bus and light rail. The center is located at 14th and Hwy 40, just a block south of the Scottrade arena and a block east of Union Station.

Even though light rail is on hold here in KC, St. Louis shows us that we still have a lot of room to improve our existing transportation system and its scattered facilities. Right now we have a bus hub is at 10th & Main, but Amtrak is a mile south at Union Station and Greyhound is a mile east at 11th and Troost.  To make matters even worse, there is no single bus route that connects all three, not even the flagship MAX..  Someone needing to transfer between Amtrak and Greyhound would need to take two different buses to get there.

As our three Missouri counties move forward with the Smart Moves regional transit plan, we need to be considering ways to connect all of our transit systems and provide seemless transfer between each one.