There is a real concern about putting humans on existing freight lines without truly knowing that there is sufficient capacity to transport them safely. Many of the rails lines are already congested with freight use. Not likely as those lines are owned by competing railroad companies. Commuter, passenger and freight rails can co-exist, but each is developed for its own purpose. They might schedule around each other.
Commuter rail is usually less expensive because of the use of existing lines.
If anyone in the group knows of any inactive, existing lines not already on our map the study team would like to know about them. Connecting to KU, through buses or some other means, is important. A. One reason for commuter rail's cost-effectiveness is the its ability to use existing facilities. The construction of a new river crossing would probably make the whole project too expensive to implement. So we would anticipate that we would use existing bridges.