Clay Chastain makes one final light-rail pitch before leaving Kansas City

Transit activist Clay Chastain made a final pitch Monday for his light-rail ballot initiative, Question 3 on the Kansas City ballot, before leaving town to drive back to his home in Bedford, Va.

Chastain touted his sweeping light-rail plan, urging the city to “build a world-class transit system like we once had and that other cities are building.”

Kansas City voters will decide Question 3’s fate in Tuesday’s election.

Chastain also got in line to vote absentee at Union Station on Monday, then prepared to return to the East Coast because his daughter Claire had to get back to school.

While Chastain moved away from Kansas City in 2001 and now lives for the most part in Bedford, he said he retains his voter registration in Kansas City, using his sister’s address, and he has never voted in Bedford. Election authorities said he is allowed to consider Kansas City his residence for voting purposes.

For the ninth time in 20 years, Chastain has gathered petition signatures and placed a measure on a Kansas City ballot. This one would raise sales taxes for 25 years to help pay for a 40-mile light-rail system from Kansas City International Airport to the Cerner campus on Bannister Road. Critics say it robs money from the bus system and still doesn’t raise nearly enough money to actually build the system he envisions.

This story was originally published November 7, 2016 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Clay Chastain makes one final light-rail pitch before leaving Kansas City."