Elevated is not only cheaper, it doesn’t necessarily mean the apocalypse. For example, the S-Bahn is a surface/elevated system that traverses a lot of Berlin residential neighbourhoods that seem to do just fine with it. The residential area of the elevated Hackescher Markt station, where my son used to rent, is pleasant lively and liveable. Plus, great transit. I get that a lot of folks in Leslieville want subways, subways, subways. But the cost is becoming so high that we’ll build very little rapid transit if we insist it all be buried. And the NIMBY arguments put forward by Toronto politicians and residents’ associations to oppose pretty much everything always do seem mostly completely uninformed by the experience of the rest of the world.