Remember that light rail (aka urban rail) can be elevated on pylons to achieve grade separation and minimize the taking of traffic lanes. DART in Dallas operates as a ground-level system in some places, elevated in others, and in a subway for part of its route. Lots of flexibility with the smaller electric trains.
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Originally Posted by Novacek
You don't need it (and potentially don't want it) underground in the downtown area.
Putting rail underground has some advantages, but also disadvantages.
Pro: don't need to worry about cross traffic
Pro: don't take away lanes/RoW/acquire property (except for station accesses).
Pro: resistant to weather shutdowns (but in Austin we don't really need to worry about snow/ice).
Pro: avoid contention with freight rail/rail crossing
Pro: potentially longer trainsets without having to worry about exceeding block lengths.
Con: less accessible (both for those handicapped and others).
Con: out of sight, out of mind, less likely for people to just jump on the passing train they see coming.
Con: $$$$
Not taking lanes may be a reason/need to go underground in some sections of the corridor. But there's a lot of N/S lanes (and parking) through downtown.
Remember, they looked at going underground through the downtown section for the most recent proposal, and decided it wasn't worth the cost. (they did have the northern tunnel to avoid the freight rail).
A little further north, maybe going underground (or elevated, LRT can be elevated as well) for a section is the solution for UT and the Guadalupe chokepoint, if that ends up being the next proposal again. But we'd have to pay for it.
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