The 14-mile light rail plan put to Kansas City voters last year probably wouldn't have qualified for federal funding.

That's what consultants had to say today as they near completion of an alternatives analysis of the light rail plan that voters handily rejected last year.

The problems were the same old bugaboos that have haunted light rail for years in Kansas City: a lack of good population densities, inadequate policies that spur the kind development that generates riders, too much cheap parking  and our general unwillingness to approve a tax for light rail (with the exception of Clay Chastain's repealed plan from 2006).

As a refresher, the $845 million line would have run from I-29 and Vivion Road in North Kansas City across the river through downtown to the Plaza and east to Watkins Parkway and south to 63rd street. The price for taxpayers: a three-eight cent sales tax increase.

During last fall's campaign, critics repeatedly raised the spector of federal funding, asking how voters could support something that might not get federal money

Consultants told transit planners today that the 14-mile plan wouldn't have met the cost-effectiveness criteria in order to qualify for funding. They did suggest a six-mile line from the Plaza to the rivefront might work, but that too probably wouldn't be sufficiently cost-effective.

The consultants from HNTB had previously suggested that the population densities along the route, especially east and north of downtown, would have made it difficult, if not impossible, to qualify for federal funding.

Generally, an average of 6,600 to 10,000 people per square mile is needed to score federal funds. But Kansas City isn’t close to that number along the 14-mile route that voters rejected in November. In fact, consultants predicted it would average only 3,600 by 2030.

Of course, that's under the policies established under the Bush Administration, which could change under Obama who's believed to be more transit friendly.

But the consultants had some data that should be somewhat alarming to anyone who thinks light rail is the answer to our transportation needs.

Light rail really wouldn't save us that much time. The light rail trains would only cut three minutes off the travel time from downtown to the Plaza.

And it would take a minute LONGER to get from downtown to Vivion Road. In fact, the consultants said it would faster to get to Vivion Road by bus rapid transit like the MAX.

Riders would have saved 14 minutes from the Plaza to the area near 63rd Street where the trains would have been able to run in their own right of way.