Map 1: "Recommendation: Initial Phase"

The "Red/Green Line with BRT" -- the package Capital Metro will submit to the Federal Transit Administration for "new starts" funding -- starts at Howard Lane and runs south to Lamar and Airport along the Cap Met-owned Austin and Northwestern track (the Red Line). From there, it runs down Lamar, Guadalupe and Colorado, on the street, all the way to Fourth and Colorado in the Warehouse District. In some places where right-of-way is insufficient -- such as along the Drag -- the north- and south-bound trains would run on parallel streets.

"Bus Rapid Transit" -- which uses rubber-tired vehicles but has stations and dedicated right-of-way just like light rail -- would run from downtown across the river to Ben White. Those vehicles would turn into regular express buses running to Slaughter Lane. The original Green Line had rail going into South Austin; this got shelved after Cap Metro discovered (or re-discovered) that the Congress Avenue bridge can't hold rail vehicles and that rebuilding it could threaten the celebrated bat colony that calls it home.

Total cost estimates, which Cap Metro says are intentionally generous, price out this starter line at $687.3 million, or $33.5 million per mile. The agency predicts that 46,000 riders a day will use the line when it opens in 2007. (The BRT portion could open sooner.)

HOV Lanes: In addition to the rail/BRT line, Cap Metro would in its initial phase contribute to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes along the northern and southern (but not central) Austin-area segments of I-35. These are already being formally studied by the Texas Department of Transportation.