Unfortunately that new Light Rail Line, being a suburban mini-metro with virtually all new stations along highways, will not create more walkable, human-scale neighborhoods with great transit connections to downtown. That's because you won't have those neighborhoods where they'll build the stations.

And that's often the problem with public transit that is built nowadays in North America (if any is built at all..) -- it's often built to outer low-density suburbs, along or on highways, with giant park'n'rides instead of neighborhoods at stations.

And that's why walkable neighborhoods with good transit connections are so rare and thus so expensive.

Subways are expensive and displacing buildings to build grade level rail is a problem for many people. Sharing right of way with freeways makes some sense.

Some of the L lines in Chicago are above ground, when they are, they generally use the median area of a major highway (south 90/94 and 290 to the west). There is some at grade stretches on the north side of the city/near suburbs.

I think all of the suburban commuter (Metra, which is an entirely different system & agency) use freight lines, with stations typically near the town/village/city center. Problem with the shared lines is that freight (because they own the line) generally has priority. Freight train breaks down? Youre stuck for hours. 1.5 mile coal train coming through at the switch? You're stuck until it passes.

Granted, when I had to commute into the Loop in Chicago, the hour total of using Metra was far more convenient, less frustrating and cheaper than driving. It was a hour door to door for me, 15 mins to get to the station, 5 minutes of waiting, 25 mins on the train and about a 15 min walk to the office.

Now I both live and work in the West suburbs. Usually a 15 minute drive into work, about 25 home.

There are other other options besides tunnels and elevated along highways - for example using rail ROWs. Also, if you build Urban metros instead of suburban ones, the tunnel costs are often worthwhile.

Yeah, Montreal is super affordable by pretty much any metric.

Montreal is mentioned here, as one style of adding "enough" supply: https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-...

Indeed supply is the critical factor in housing affordability.

Hey, off-topic question. My father built the fare collection system for the Montreal metro in the early '80s. Do you still have the awful system they built that gave you two paper tickets (one for proof, one for transfer)?

The fair collection has been revamped. It could be better, but I've also seen worse.

Single Ticket Fares

Single tickets are printed on a piece of thick cardstock. They are both used for a proof and transfer. Validation is electronic by inserting it into a machine on a bus or at a terminal of up to 2 hours. The machine prints the times it was used on the ticket.

Multiday tickets are printed on some thin plastic-like paper with an NFC chip inside. They are tapped on terminals and in busses and get no physical markings of when they were used, but are validated 100% digitally with some central system. They are also good for the same type of transfer.

Monthly/Yearly passes are a thick plastic credit-card-like card. They have an NFC chip and work similarly to the multiday tickets.