Chastain makes changes to new light rail plan

A week after Clay Chastain unveiled his newest light-rail plan to the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board of Commissioners, the plan was altered with new interests in mind.

Chastain tweaked his $1.2 billion multi-modal transit plan on May 18, and the biggest alteration was expanding a 10-mile light rail, originally exclusively located south of the Missouri River, five miles into the Northland. Exactly where it would be placed in the Northland was not determined.

Chastain said in a May 21 phone interview from his home in Virginia that the change was intended to ensure Northland residents would back the plan.

“I felt it was a more balanced system,” Chastain said. “I put myself up in the Northland … and I said ‘what’s in it for me?’”

The plan Chastain presented to the parks board May 12 had only an electric bus system in the Northland. To account for the additional funds needed for the extra five miles of light rail, Chastain’s newest plan downsizes the electric bus system while also reducing from seven miles to five miles a trolley system that would connect the city’s east side to the rail spine.

A green bikeway/pedestrian network, “alternative energy” park sporting a wind turbine and a transportation hub at Union Station remained in the plan.

The changes came just days after Chastain had lunch with Councilman Russ Johnson, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Chastain also discussed the plan over the phone with another councilman, Ed Ford.

But Johnson and Ford both said they did not direct Chastain to tweak his plan to make it more popular in the Northland, a fact Chastain confirmed.

In fact, Johnson told Chastain the shorter the rail spine, the better.

“I suggested he kept the costs down,” said Johnson, who noted taking the spine into the Northland would most likely require a pricey new bridge to be built.

Johnson said he told Chastain he would determine whether the council wanted to support Chastain’s plan. It was clear that was not the case, Johnson said.

That means Chastain will attempt to put a 3/8-cent sales tax with a 25-year life dedicated for the transit system through petition initiative. A kickoff event is planned for 11 a.m. Tuesday, June 2, at Union Station. The city tax would account for $800 million of the plan. The rest would come from federal and state funding sources, according to the plan.

About 4,280 signatures will have to be turned in by early August to allow enough time for them to be certified by the council for the November election. Chastain was unsure he could get it done.

“This might be the fairest plan of them all, but no, I’m not confident,” he said. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

“Its success is not certain, but somebody needs to take the lead here.”

News Editor Jeffrey M. Salem can be reached at 389-6653 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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