If Austin Had Rail ...

Here's how the city envisions an Austin light rail system – which voters will decide on in 2012 – with the rail running through and making stops in densely populated areas, crossing the river, and shuttling passengers to and from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

• Current assumptions are that the proposed system would be built in two phases, possibly divided somewhere Downtown, but it hasn't been decided which phase would come first.

• The black dots are "conceptual" stops – no stops have been finalized.

• Solid lines represent fairly solid estimations of where the line would run.

• Dotted lines are still under consideration, including a spur to Hancock Center and the location where the rail should cross the river: at the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge or possibly a new bridge to the east. And if the latter, how it will get through properties on the south bank of the Colorado River and connect to Riverside? (The Austin American-Statesman, which owns one of the properties, has expressed interest in allowing a crossing; the state of Texas, the other owner, is reportedly less enthusiastic.)

• The rail would connect with Capital Metro's Red Line at the Martin Luther King Station and the Downtown Station. If other proposed mass-transit plans materialize, it could connect at Downtown with Cap Metro's Elgin Green Line, the Georgetown-to-San Antonio Lone Star Rail, and Cap Metro's Bus Rapid Transit.