I don't know anything about Nashville, but one of the common complaints about a recent rail proposal in Austin was that it served the areas least likely to use

I don't know anything about Nashville, but one of the common complaints about a recent rail proposal in Austin was that it served the areas least likely to use mass transit. And, it traveled within the wealthy and slow-growing (in terms of population) west and northwest parts of central Austin, even though the east and southeast sides use mass transit more, once you remove the university population, which is already reasonably well-served by the bus system and wouldn't have been served directly by the proposed train, anyway. One could make the argument that the proposal, in that case, was outdated because it didn't recognize that much of the growth in Austin is in the east and southeast of the city. It was based on assumptions about where people live and work that aren't current. And, many made the case that it was based on serving the wealthy, mostly white, population of Austin, especially a few real estate developers, while the poorer, mostly latinx, population would continue to be poorly served by Cap Metro buses and would likely see fare increases because of the new construction. So, even if one believes a particular transit technology, whatever it is, is technically sound and will last decades (e.g. the NY subway, which has likely paid for itself many times over since its construction and continues to serve the city, despite being very old and in need of updates and new construction), it may not be forward-looking on logistical matters. If you build a train, bus, light rail, nuclear submarine, hyperloop, whatever, that nobody rides, you haven't solved any problems for the city, you've just incurred debt. I'm in favor of mass transit, of course. The more, the better. But, I surprisingly found myself on the opposite side of the recent Austin rail measure because of the reasons mentioned among others. Again, I have no idea what's going on with Nashville. I've only visited. Just sharing how one might oppose a transit initiative without believing self-driving cars will solve everything in five years.