Kansas City, Mo ? The people mover isn’t going anywhere.

Officials at Kansas City International Airport have halted plans for an automated people-moving system. The system had been part of a $395 million bond package approved by voters two years ago.

The elevated rail system would have transported air travelers from a new satellite parking lot and consolidated car-rental center to the three terminals.

At $185 million, the people mover was the most expensive component of the four-part bond issue, which also included the satellite lot, car-rental center and improvements to the TWA now American Airlines overhaul base.

But on Monday, Aviation Director Russ Widmar told the city council’s aviation committee that the people-moving system was no longer feasible.

One factor contributing to its demise was studies that showed it would add 10 minutes of travel time between the satellite, or long-term, parking lot and the terminals.

Widmar also said that at $243 million, construction cost estimates were $58 million higher than expected. In addition, focus groups indicated that the people mover would create more hassles for travelers. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, airport revenue has dropped 10 percent and security expenses have gone up 10 percent.

“This is not the right time to build the automated people mover,” Widmar said. “Economics will not allow us to build it.”

Instead, Widmar said some of the money designated for the people mover will be used for security improvements. Already, blast-proof glass and higher walls between the concourse and passenger holding areas have been installed, at a cost of $7.2 million.

The city has spent $4 million on studies and schematic designs for the people mover, Widmar said. It could still be built, if the aviation industry rebounds.

“Nothing we have done on this is a throwaway,” Widmar said.

The ballot language for the August 2000 bond issue did not specifically call for the people mover or the three other improvements. That allowed for more flexibility in the Aviation Department’s long-term capital improvement plans, Widmar said.

Such flexibility also was used in a $330 million bond issue for the airport that voters approved in 1988. A large portion of those bonds were originally intended to pay for a fourth terminal at KCI.

But several events mainly the demise of Braniff and Eastern airlines and the recession of the early 1990s caused a drop in the number of passengers at KCI. Eventually, that bond money was used to pay for the terminal renovations, which started last year and are scheduled for completion in 2004.

During the bond issue campaign, supporters put out a brochure touting the automated people mover as small trains similar to ones seen at airports in St. Louis, Denver and Chicago that would quickly move people and luggage from the parking lot to the terminals and from terminal to terminal.