Clay Chastain will discuss light rail plan Monday in Kansas City

Clay Chastain doesn’t live in Kansas City anymore, but he has a massive light rail proposal on the Kansas City ballot in November.

So he’ll be in town next week and will appear at the Plaza Library, 4801 Main St., on Monday to discuss his idea.

Chastain said he will be in the Plaza Library’s large meeting room from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Monday.

Chastain gathered sufficient signatures of registered voters to put an idea on the Nov. 8 ballot. It calls for a $2 billion, 40-mile system of light rail trains and electric buses from Kansas City International Airport to the Cerner campus in south Kansas City and from Union Station to the Truman Sports Complex.

It would require a three-eighths cent sales tax increase for 25 years, beginning in 2017. It would also divert one of the city’s two bus taxes for three-eighths of a cent, again for 25 years beginning in 2024, depriving the buses of about $26 million per year.

Chastain lives most of the time in Bedford, Va., but has pushed his light rail plans for Kansas City since the mid-1990s. This is his 10th transit-related petition initiative attempt with Kansas City voters. None has been implemented.

This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Clay Chastain will discuss light rail plan Monday in Kansas City."